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FIVE LECTURES 



ON 



THE EARLY CHURCH 



DELIVERED BY 



Rev. W. h/o'Connell, 



AT TEE 



CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL 

PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. ^ 

1895. K U ADG 7M8^i 



PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. : 
W. LANSING & SON, PRINTERS. 



Wfis cUS 



COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY W. H. 7 CO>TNET/L. 



FIVE LECTURES 



ON 



THE EARLY CHURCH 



DELIVERED BY 



/ 

Rev. W. H. O'Connell, 



AT THE 



CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL, 

PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. 
1895. 



PLATTSBURGH, N. Y. : 
W. LANSING & SON, PRINTERS. 




■■', 



f?\* 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following series of conferences were not in- 
tended originally for publication, at least in their 
present condition. They were written to serve rather 
as notes to aid the lecturer, than as lectures. The 
author had hoped later on to revise and rebuild much 
in them that is unfinished and lacking in order and 
composition, and thus present them to the reading 
public in more acceptable form. Their publication 
was hastened by the request of indulgent friends, and 
especially by the generosity of Mr. W. H. Mofhtt, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., who, believing that the students at 
the Summer School who had assisted at these lectures 
would value some memoranda of them, defrayed the 
entire expense of printing them himself. The haste 
of preparing them for press will explain whatever 
inaccuracies they contain. 

I hope in a later and fuller edition to give text of 
references and credit to sources which I have consulted. 

W. H. O'CONNELL. 

Plattsburgh, N. Y., July 13, 1895. 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



Perhaps at no period of the Church's existence has 
the study of Church history been of such great im- 
portance as it is to-day. The nineteenth century is 
essentially a practical one. The subtleness of argument 
and the finesse of reasoning brought almost to a fault 
in the scholasticism of the times just passed, have 
scarcely a place in the mental attitude of the present 
day. Materialism has invaded the fields of religious 
doctrine and profane knowledge : facts not theories 
are what interest the modern mind. Now, history 
is nothing more or less than the searching out and 
weighing facts as they have happened, and thus by 
truthful relation of them to place under the very 
finger of science and to the eye of study, the story of 
the past, 

Outside the church, agnosticism rules the hour : no 
principle is safe, no premises accepted except those 
that are approved by positive experience; and so it 
comes to pass that argumentation towards moral or 
dogmatic conclusions has absolutely no force with 
the rationalistic mind, unless it can be proved that 
these principles and premises are, as it were, working 
material. History almost alone provides this working 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



material. Of itself it frames no theories, it creates no 
principles; its work is simply a complete collection, a 
truthful and unbiased narration of positive incidents. 
Its value, therefore, in the field of modern science is at 
once manifest, for in proof of its position, it brings 
forth the handwriting and, so to speak, the very voices 
of the dead. 

Christian scholars may discuss among themselves 
and dispute as to the reasonableness of this or that 
particular doctrine, without ever arriving at a practical 
conclusion and agreement ; but if we can produce the 
tangible and visible testimony of eye witnesses that 
show beyond all doubt that this, and not that, was the 
doctrine taught by Christ, it is plain that there is no 
room for further argument. Now, this is precisely 
what history does. 

In this light, I would venture to assert that the his- 
tory of the first three centuries of the Church's ex- 
istence is of all times the most important, for it is 
generally agreed by all those who profess the name of 
Christian, that during this time, the doctrines and 
practices of the Church were observed and taught in 
all their purity. The accusation of error and corruption 
is never made against the Church as it existed then. 
The modern, as they call it, Catholic Church, has lost 
its claim to identity with the true Church of Christ 
because from the beginning of the fourth century, it 
departed from the simplicity and purity of doctrine 
and government of the primitive Church. 

Therefore, is it not manifest that the whole field of 
argument becomes purely historical; that is to say, the 
records and documents of the primitive Church must 
be unearthed and brought to light, so that the char- 
acter and conditions of early Christianity may be 
positively known, and then putting side by side with 
these, the teachings and practices of the Church of to- 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



day, by faithful comparison, thus vindicating the vera- 
city of the Church's claim to identity with the Church 
founded by Christ, built by the apostles, and accepted 
by the earliest professors of the faith. 

It is of the very essence of the concept of the Church 
that it is a human organization living by spiritual 
principles; that is, it has its internal life and its external 
manifestations. By internal life we mean its doctrine, 
its worship, in a word, its whole spiritual existence ; by 
its external relations, we mean its attitude towards 
the people, the governments, the nations of its time. 

The present series of conferences deals only with 
this latter subject, that is with the founders of the 
Church and their followers, as they influenced society 
around them merely as a visible organization. Hence, 
it is plain that we must treat of Christ, the visible 
Founder, the apostles who propagated the faith 
among the nations, and the nations themselves who 
received it. Thus far, we consider the Church with 
regard to itself and its extension. On the other hand, we 
must view human society in its opposition to the Church 
as characterized by its persecutions ; and finally as a 
supplement to the written history of these times, the 
testimony which archaeology gives us in the recent 
discoveries made in the catacombs must be studied. 

Therefore, the subject matter of these conferences 
will naturally divide itself under five headings : 

ist. Christ, the Founder of the Christian Religion. 

2nd. The Apostles and their labors. 

3rd. The Propagation of the faith. 

4th. The Persecutions. 

5th. The Catacombs. 

We come, therefore, in this first conference to give 
an historical narration of the Founder of Christianity. 
At the outset, 1 would beg to state that these lectures 
or conferences are intended to be neither apologetic, 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



controversial nor homiletic. The treatment, to be true 
to its purpose, must be strictly historical, that is, it 
must busy itself with neither moral conclusions nor 
mere descriptions, however interesting or fruitful these 
might be. It has been sought, in their preparation, to 
adhere most strictly to the scientific-historical method ; 
which is a simple, straightforward, accurate narration 
of whatever can be tound in the most trustworthy, 
authentic and reliable documents bearing upon this 
subject. It is hoped that what by this process may be 
lacking in attractiveness shall be more than compen- 
sated for by accuracy of knowledge; for aside from 
the fact that this is to be a study in histor}^, the brief 
time permitted to the consideration of subjects of such 
magnitude, forces us to confine ourselves to the 
simplest outlines of the events of this period. 

The central figure of all history is Christ. All the 
events that have happened in the world's existence 
are referred to the date of His coming. Strange as it 
may seem, of the life and wondrous acts of this great 
historical figure, extremely little can be gained from 
written records and authentic accounts. Of these, 
almost the only ones of indisputable authority and 
veracity are in the brief and meagre biography founded 
on the four Gospels. Accepting these as documents 
of the very highest historical value, inasmuch as they 
are a description of Christ, either by eye witnesses or 
by those who narrate what they tell, as coming directly 
from eye-witnesses, the story of Christ's life may thus 
be briefly told. 

Augustus was sitting upon the throne of the Roman 
Empire, and by a word of command could set into 
motion the machinery of government over the whole 
civilized world. He was proud of his power, and, 
desirous to learn the extent of his dominions and the 
number of his subjects, issued an edict that all the 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



world should be enrolled. One of the countries af- 
fected by this edict was Palestine, whose king, Herod 
the Great, was a vassal of Augustus. The people were 
to be enrolled in the places to which they belonged as 
members of the twelve tribes. Among those thus 
driven forth into the highways, were an humble pair in 
the village of Nazareth of Galilee, Joseph, the carpenter 
and Mary, His espoused wife. Though peasants, the 
blood of kings coursed in their veins, and they belonged 
to the royal and ancient town of Bethlehem away to 
the south more than a hundred miles. They travelled 
some days, and at last came to the gate of the little 
town, he, terrified with anxiety, and she well nigh 
dead with fatigue. Onward they go to the inn, to find 
it crowded with strangers and with no room left for 
them. No house opened its friendly door, so they 
cleared a lodging in a corner of the inn yard, used as a 
stable for the beasts of burden. There, that very night, 
she gave birth to her first born Son, and having at 
hand no womanly attendants nor proper clothing, she 
wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a 
manger. How full of pathos is this simple description 
of the first scene in the life of the King of Kings. 
Amid the noise and bustle of the citizens of Bethlehem 
and the strangers who came to be registered, unheeded, 
unknown, the greatest event in the history of the 
world had taken place, and an ancient prophecy was 
fulfilled which said : "Thou, Bethlehem, little among 
the thousands of Juda though thou be, yet out of thee 
shall come forth He that is to be the ruler in Israel." 

It is not our purpose to enter into the dispute, still 
unsettled, as to the exact year in which Christ was 
born. Upon this point the most accurate chronologists 
and acute critics have not been able to agree. Sum- 
ming up all the arguments, however, upon this disputed 
point, the best authorities assign the year 750 or 749 



10 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

of the Roman era to be the date ol the birth of Christ. 
As to the fixing of the exact day, the work is still more 
difficult. A Jewish tradition embodied in the Talmud 
fixes Christ's birthday in December. Clement of 
Alexandria seems uncertain as to whether November 
17, April 20, or May 21, is the true day. The Syrians 
and Greeks clung with tenacity to January 6 ; but it is 
certain that from the middle of the fourth century the 
Feast of the Nativity has been celebrated on Decem- 
ber 25 ; and since 376 the Greeks have observed this 
day, which is the one set dcwn as proper in the Apostolic 
Constitutions. 

Though Christ made His entry on the stage of 
human life so humbly and so silently, though mankind 
in its activity went thundering forth next morning in 
the channels of its ordinary interests, quite unconscious 
of the event which had happened, yet He lacked not 
witnesses to His mysterious advent into the world. 
First came the shepherds from the neighboring fields ; 
these were the representatives of the peasant people, 
the laborers and the simple among men, who afterwards 
formed the bulk of his disciples. Next, came Simeon 
and Anna, representatives of the old law and the 
prophets, and from afar, in the countries away to the 
east, came the Magi, the representatives of the gentile 
world of science, philosophy and learning. All these 
gathered around His cradle to worship the Holv 
Child. 

But while He inspired within the souls of these, His 
first worshippers, the love and tenderness which were 
to be His greatest powers, into the heart of Herod, 
then ruling Judea, crept the poison of jealousy and 
fear. From the Magi he had learned the birth of the 
great King, and fearing a rival in his power he sent 
his soldiers to murder every babe under two years in 
Bethlehem. But Christ, with Joseph and Mary, had 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. I I 

fled into Egypt, and the tyrant was foiled in his mur- 
derous intent. There dwelt the Holy Family, far from 
their native land, till Herod died, when they returned 
and dwelt at Nazareth. Up to this point the records 
are comparatively full and apparently clear ; but from 
the settlement at Nazareth till His public ministry be- 
gins, our information almost fails, and of the silent 
years of Christ's youth and early manhood we know 
next to nothing. The apocryphal Gospels, pretending 
to give full details where the inspired Gospels are 
silent, are of course, of no value historically. It is only 
recorded that "He grew in wisdom and grace with God 
and man." 

Nazareth was a notoriously wicked town, as we learn 
from the proverbial question : "Can anything good 
come out of Nazareth ?" And so from the very first, He 
witnessed the sinfulness of men and the awlul problem 
which it was to be His life work to solve. He worked 
as a carpenter in his father's shop, as we know 
from the fact that His own townsmen, astonished at his 
preaching, cried out : " Is not this the carpenter ? " 

Every year after He was twelve years old, He went 
with His parents up to Jerusalem lor the feast ot the 
Passover. The story of one of these first visits is the 
only occasion on which the veil is lifted tor thirty 
years ; and there we see in His answer to His Mother 
the shadowing forth of the purpose of His Messianic 
career : "Do you not know that I must be about my 
Father's business ?" On that occasion, He had entered 
the school in which the masters of wisdom taught, and 
by His questions He sought to turn their minds to 
search the sacred writings for evidence of His own 
divine character and mission. He often went back to 
the temple schools, only to mourn over the shallowness 
of their far-famed learning and the corruption of the 
old faith. 



12 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



We now approach the time when, after thirty years 
of silence and obscurity in Nazareth, Jesus was to step 
forth on the public stage of life. Here, therefore, is the 
time to glance rapidly at the conditions of the nation 
and the people among whom He was to labor, for by 
this survey we can the better understand His future 
Hie and treatment at their hands. 

The Jewish nation had lately passed through extra- 
ordinary vicissitudes ; conqueror after conqueror had 
marched over it ; the battle of freedom had been often 
fought and lost. On the throne of David, a usurper 
sat, and now at last the country was subjected to the 
mighty power of Rome. Roman soldiers marched 
through the streets of the Holy City, their standards 
were set upon the strong places, their tax-gatherers sat 
at the gate of every town. Its religious condition had 
fallen equally low ; the forms were strictly observed, 
but the spirit had fled. The Pharisees, the representa- 
tives of the religious men of the time, multiplied fasts and 
prayers, titles and washings but were, nevertheless, an 
unspiritual and proud ecclesiastical class, avaricious in 
the extreme and scorning the people. They flaunted a 
vaunted sanctity while indulging their selfishness and 
vile passions. Society was rotten within, and veneered 
with a fair show of religiosity without. 

The Sadducees, though they praised morality, were 
no less self-indulgent than their hated opponents, the 
Pharisees. They belonged to the wealthy classes, the 
Pharisees formed the middle class, and between both 
these and the people was a gulf which remained utter- 
ly uncrossed ; and among these were classed the pub- 
licans and sinners, for whose souls no man cared. 
Such was the Jewish nation when Christ stepped forth 
upon the scene to find a people politically and relig- 
iously enslaved. 

And, if in fancy, we fly from the capital of the Jew- 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. I 3 

ish faith to the capital of the pagan world, we see there 
epitomized the condition of the gentile nations. The 
city is filled with idolatrous temples, and the squares 
adorned with the figures of false gods ; and drunken- 
ness and lust, war and theft, had their patronal divini- 
ties. Lying oracles and soothsayers were the only foun- 
tain of religious taith. And what few there were of 
men who disdained this pagan worship were led by 
false philosophy to vague conclusions. 

This was the world which Christ had come to en- 
lighten. Throwing down at last the carpenter's tools, 
and putting aside His workman's dress, He bids fare- 
well to home and the beloved valley of Nazareth. But 
first, He prepares Himself for His public career by two 
events recorded in the Gospels — His baptism by John, 
and the temptation in the desert. The first was His 
public inauguration before the world, when God visi- 
bly and audibly sealed His mission with His approval. 
In the second, the Prince of darkness was obliged to 
recognize that the challenge was thrown down. And 
thus in the face of earth and hell, empowered from 
abo\e with divine authority, He sets His face to His 
task and begins His public career. This is generally 
reckoned to have lasted about three years. As to its 
exact duration, again chroniclers and historians dis- 
agree. At the time of St. Augustine, there was an 
opinion that Christ's public life lasted only one year ; 
on the other hand, we learn from the Gospels that 
Christ visited Jerusalem for several festivals — St. John 
mentions three Passovers during our Lord's public 
life. Iranaeus and Chrysostom thought that Christ 
was nearly forty, and reckoned that His ministry 
lasted ten years. But we must conclude from the argu- 
ments adduced from the most learned writers, with 
Origen, Eusebius, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, that 
the public career ot Christ extended over three and a 



14 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

half years. For convenience sake, we may divide this 
career into three phases; the first, we may call the 
time of obscurity ; the second, the time of public favor ; 
and the third, that of opposition. 

Of the deeds and actions of the first period, the rec- 
ords are meagre in the extreme. Soon after his trial 
in the desert, He appeared once more on the banks of 
the Jordan, where John pointed Him out as the Lamb 
of God, Who was to take away the sins of the world. 
At once, the best of John's disciples attached them- 
selves to Christ. Among these were John, Andrew, 
Simon, Philip and Nathaniel, who had been prepared 
for this new Master by their intercourse with John the 
Baptist. 

With this small following, He went north into Gali- 
lee to Cana, and there he first displayed his marvellous 
power by working his first miracle at the marriage 
feast of Cana, at the request of his mother. Soon after 
he returned to Judea, to attend the Passover. On this 
occasion he entered the temple, and in the face of an 
astonished crowd, cleared the court of the holy place of 
the money changers, and rid it of an iniquitous traffic. 
Thus he began his career by an attack upon that force, 
called the lever of the world, and made his first 
enemies among the money worshippers. 

It is a significant fact, and one which indicates the 
character of his whole career, that His first miracle 
was wrought to bring joy to the simple feast of the 
common people, and his first work of reform was di- 
rected against the rich and the purse proud. 

Thus far we follow clearly the steps of Jesus ; but here 
our information comes to a sudden stop, and for the 
next eight months we learn nothing more of him save 
that He was baptizing in Judea. 

From this silence we may readily infer that though 
He labored much in Jerusalem, which was the chief 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 1 5 

scene of his activity during this period, little, however, 
was accomplished, and as the results were mainly neg- 
ative the gospels are silent. 

The second period, lasting over eighteen months, 
was spent in the north of the country, chiefly in Gali- 
lee, which is the most northerly of the provinces into 
which Palestine is divided. The whole province was 
very fertile, and its surface was covered with large 
villages and towns. On its eastern boundary lay the 
lovely harp-shaped sea of Galilee, and this was the cen- 
ter of his activity. It stretches over a basin about 
thirteen miles long, and six broad, and its shores were 
verdant with luxurant groves of olives, oranges, figs and 
an almost tropical vegetation. The fields were rich 
with fruit and the waters teemed with fish. The fame 
of Christ had preceded him into this quiet spot. Pil- 
grims to Jerusalem had carried back the report of his 
marvellous preaching, and his wondrous deeds, so that 
for a time He was the one topic of conversation in the 
household circle, and the subject of much discussion 
of every gathering that met in the public squares and 
market-places. One of the first towns he visited was 
Nazareth, the home of his childhood and youth. He 
appeared one day in the synagogue of his native town. 
His early acquaintances and friends were delighted to 
have an opportunity of hearing this great preacher 
whom they had known as a boy and young man, but 
who had suddenly sprung into great prominence, and 
was the talk of the hour. He was invited to read 
from the Scriptures and address the people. He se- 
lected a passage from Isalas, in which a glowing ac- 
count is given of the expected Messias, and the work 
he was to accomplish. With wondrous clearness He 
unfolded to their attentive ears the mysterious words 
of prophecy, and as filled with the enthusiasm of the 
faithful picture, His eloquence grew into a very tor- 



l6 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

rent of convincing argument and description, the peo- 
ple held their breath spellbound with the charm and 
fascination of his power, and in the pause which fol- 
lowed turned to each other, surprise and wonderment 
upon their faces, and whispered, "Is not this the car- 
penter?" 

Again he takes up his discourse. Calmly he pro- 
ceeds, amid the hushed silence of the throng, to indicate 
to them how, one by one, all these signs were verified 
in Himself. For a while they listened, scarcely daring 
to believe their ears. At last recovering from their 
stupor, little by little the murmuring spread among 
the crowd, until it finally broke into a cry of angry 
scorn. The whole assembly rose, and gathering 
round him, still standing calm and unmoved in the face 
of their anger, they rushed against Him, and forc- 
ing Him before them out of the synagogue, they fol- 
lowed upon his steps, fiiling the air with howls of deris- 
ion, till they rerched a lofty crag behind the town. 
Some one in the crowd screamed to the rest to hurl 
him from the height to the ground below. The mob 
took up the cry and then and there would his career 
have suddenly ended, and Nazareth would have robbed 
Jerusalem of its sinful prominence as a deicide, had he 
not by a miracle concealed himself and withdrew from 
among them. 

This was the welcome offered him by his native 
town, which prompted that saying of his so full of 
pathos: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his 
own country." Henceforth Nazareth could no long- 
er be his home. When, after this, He sought some 
little respite from his labors, He went to the quiet little 
town of Capernaum. From there He made frequent 
journeys inland, and sometimes he made the tour of 
the villages on the lake. In a few weeks all Gallilee 
was ringing with his name. Immense crouds followed 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 1 7 

Him wherever He went, and the whole region was 
stirred to a very fire of excitement. His miracles ex- 
cited the widest attention. When, for the first time, 
he cured the dread leprosy, the terror of every Jew, 
the wonder of the people knew no bounds. When 
first they saw Him drive out the evil spirit from one 
possessed, they were overcome with awe; when He 
raised to life the widow's son at Nairn, His marvel- 
ous power was the theme of a thousand tongues. 

Soon he was looked for everywhere. The streets 
of the little villages through which he passed were 
thronged with the victims of every disease. He 
labored day and night, and often could not find time 
to eat. Now all Palestine had heard of Him, and 
people traveled miles and miles to hear him speak. 
He attached to himself those whom he had healed, 
and their friends, who, filled with gratitude towards 
him, followed him everywhere and at once became 
His most ardent disciples. Such a one was Mary 
Magdalen, out of whom we read He cast seven devils. 

The wonder of his miracles brought tremendous 
gatherings to hear him speak, and he used these won- 
derful deeds as a trumpet to draw the people to listen 
to his doctrines, and to give credence to what He had 
to say to them. It was a stupendous claim which He 
was one day to make, when He had prepared their 
minds to hear it ; one that would need an enormous 
amount of testimony to make good and sustain. He 
was going to shake to tneir very foundations all their 
dearest dreams and pet theories. It would require a 
wonderful degree of confidence to understand and be- 
lieve it. And so He spends days and days in showing 
those people that He came to them as an accredited 
messenger, whose word was truth. The day would 
come when He would say to them with unanswerable 
logic "if you do not believe Me, at least believe My 
works." 



IS CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

But His miracles were only a means to an end. He 
had no intention of healing all the world of bodily ills. 
But He did come to rid humanity of the diseases of 
the diseases of the mind and soul. And this he did by 
showing them the truth in his preaching. 

This was His mission and the mission of His apostles 
and his church. His preaching created widespread 
excitement. Even His enemies testified to His won- 
derful eloquence, saying, never man spake as this man. 
We possess but few and meagre remains of His dis- 
courses, but even from these we may learn the force 
and cogency of His reasoning and judge from the re- 
sults that followed them, the impression they pro- 
duced. The form of these utterances is essentially 
Jewish. He takes hold of a single point which He 
wishes to impress, He turns it round and round, comes 
back to it again and again, puts into another form the 
very same idea, until the general concept of the lesson 
is unmistakably comprehended. Then, in a few, brief, 
pointed phrases, He focuses the whole significance of 
the speech and He has finished. His style, if we may 
so put it, was brief, epigrammatic, oracular. His sen- 
tences read like proverbs. They were striking in 
sound and easily remembered as they were spoken. 
They stick to the memory like an arrow. 

When He pictured truth in a parable, it was always 
just the very aptest possible picture, that would re- 
main forever on the mind, even years and years after 
the exact words had been forgotten. There never was 
speech so simple, yet so profound. 

The three marked qualities of His preaching are au- 
thority, fearlessness and power. The gospels tell us 
that the people were astonished at His doctrine, for 
He taught as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes. They never uttered a word without attempt- 
ing to bolster it up with some other authority. He 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 19 

spoke the truth as from His own knowledge, knowing 
that He Himself was truth. 

He spoke fearlessly, sparing no one, however high 
his office; indeed, it was always to the lofty and pow- 
erful He addressed his sharpest rebukes. He never 
lost an opportunity to unveil the sham and hypocrisy 
that sat in the high places. There never was polemic 
so scathing, so annihilating, as the indignation He 
hurled againts the scribes, the pharisees and the lev- 
ites. 

"His word stirred his audience to the depths. His 
word was power." The spirit of God which filled 
him, overflowed from His words into the minds and 
hearts of those who truly came to hear Him, and fired 
them with the same enthusiasm and zeal. 

Of the character of the doctrines He taught, it is 
the province of theology, not history, to treat. He 
spoke of God as the common lather of all, and taught 
His hearers that the time had come when not in Jeru- 
salem alone, but in every land under heaven, Jehova 
would be worshipped. He contrasted the new wor- 
ship which He came to establish, a worship in spirit 
and in truth, with the arid formalism and mere cere- 
monial of the old religion. But the centre and soul 
of His preaching was Himself, 

He was the son of God. He was the light of the 
world. He was the way, the truth and the life, and 
the command that accompanied every address was to 
come to Him, to hear Him, to follow Him. In Him 
was the fullness of time, the fulfillment of the law and 
the verification of the prophecies. In a word He 
was the Messiah, He was God. 

And now let us glance at His audience. He spoke 
to the people wherever He could find them; on the 
mountain, in the fields, on the sea shore, in the courts, 
in the synagogues. To one or to ten thousand, it 



20 



seemed to matter little to Him, so that He delivered 
His message. Some heard Him and in scoffery turned 
away; others listened, wondered, then followed Him. 
These gradually formed around Him a body of disci- 
ples. To them, from time to time, He gave a fuller in- 
struction, often taking them aside for a little course of 
private teaching. This formed the nucleus of that de- 
voted band which was afterward to spread 
and perpetuate His teaching. At the open- 
ing of His Galilean ministry, He set apart 
twelve of these, whom He called upon to leave 
their ordinary employments and ordained to 
the office of the apostolate. He commissioned them 
to teach the elements of His doctrine, and gave to them 
miraculous powers. In this way many towns about 
were evangelized which He had no time to visit. He 
had in store for them a mission much more far reach- 
ing, but that time had not yet arrived, and their in- 
dividual work we shall hear in the next lecture. Suf- 
fice it to mention here that in the choice, ordination 
and training of these twelve, he provided for the car- 
rying out of plans that during his life-time could never 
be accomplished — i. e., the propagation of his doctrine 
throughout the whole world. And right here we see 
the means He took to accomplish that end. He might 
have put the whole system of His wonderful doctrine 
down in writing. What a wonderful book it would 
have been, penned by His own hand; but He wanted 
His truth learned from a living voice, speak- 
ing with His own authority. That was undoubtedly 
the best way, since He would be sure to select only 
the best. And so, indeed, it has proved. 

So passed the second period of Christ's public 
career. Won by His wonderful eloquence, and cap- 
tivated by the tenderness and affection He showed to 
all who came to Him, the people followed His foot- 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 21 

steps wherever He went, drinking in with avidity 
every word He spoke, and adding daily to the num- 
ber of his disciples. They revered Him as a prophet, 
they marvelled at his eloquence, they stood in awe of 
His miracles. The whole nation resounded with His 
name. They wanted to make Him king. Surely one 
looking in at that time upon Galilee would have the 
thought that Christ would soon be borne aloft on the 
wave of public acknowledgement to a victorious pos- 
session of Jerusalem. But even now, underneath these 
very signs of popular favor, can be detected the germs 
of opposition. Let us glance for a moment at the 
causes already at work, which would in the end pre- 
vail to turn His growing triumph into complete 
apparent failure. And first, we have seen the 
stand which Christ had taken and openly proclaimed 
against gold worship and power seeking. This drew 
upon Him at once the hatred of the Sadducees and 
Herodians. His constant companionship with the 
people of the lower classes was enough with 
them to condemn him as an imposter and 
a demagogue; and to be considered much 
in the same light as to-day an over-bearing, purse- 
proud capitalist would consider a leader of the social- 
ists — a dangerous man and a conspirator against their 
ease and comfort With the Pharisees, the same 
causes worked differently. They aspired to be lead- 
ers of the people in everything ecclesiastical and re- 
ligious, and so they became jealous of Christ's influence 
with the masses ; and when he proclaimed Himself the 
Messiah, He so completely was at variance with all 
their preconceived notions that His claim appeared 
both ridiculous and blasphemous. His constant com- 
panionship with sinners stamped Him in their eyes as 
one of the sinners Himself. His simple origin could 
never with their prejudices be reconciled with great- 



22 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

ness of soul; He had selected his chosen organs, not 
from among the students of the temple, the college 
men of that day, but from peasants and fishermen; in- 
deed one of them was a publican. Respectable and 
learned men like the Pharisees could scarcely be ex- 
pected to mingle with such a class. 

Then, again, according to their estimate, He had lit- 
tle regard for the Jewish religion. He disregarded 
and encouraged his followers to pay little attention to 
many of the Jewish observances, washings and fasts, 
which in their eyes were inseparably bound up with 
ideas of religious life. But most of all he seemed to 
disregard the sanctity of the Sabbath, and this always 
remained with them the bitterest ground for hatred. 
And so when He announced Himself as the Messiah, 
they stopped their ears and rent their garments as at the 
sound of a blasphemDus utterance. 

But, then, there were his miracles; how could they 
get over these? Simply enough. They might be 
wrought by false as well as true prophets; they might 
be diabolical as well as divine. Their origin was to 
be traced on other grounds, and on these grounds 
they had made up their minds, that He was from Beel- 
zebub, not from Heaven. Once their judgment 
formed, nothing could change it. 

Finally, let us look at the common people themselves, 
among whom Christ had succeeded in gaining mo- 
mentary favor. They had listened to His beautiful and 
consoling doctrines, and their character of pity and 
sympathy had won them to His side. They were 
tired to death of the shallowness of the Pharisaical 
creed with all its petty observances that made life a 
burden; the simplicity and grandeur of the new faith 
appealed to them. Then, too, His miracles, bringing 
health and sight and life to their own friends and rela- 
tives, impressed them deeply. They accepted Him as 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 23 

a great Teacher, and some even went so far as to ac- 
knowledge Him as a Prophet. "Perhaps," thought 
they, "this is the forerunner of the Messiah." But 
when they heard Him say that He Himself was the 
Messiah, He so little harmonized with their grossly 
material ideas of a national deliverer, that they turned 
aside and followed Him no more. 

At once perceiving the sudden change of feeling 
among the people, the Pharisees and Sadducees 
pressed their advantage, and here begins the last pe- 
riod of Christ's public life, which I have designated as 
the period ot opposition. Christ, Himself was the 
first to recognize the change, and seeing already that 
the turn of feeling had set in against Him, and that 
at the capitol. those in power had already drawn up 
their forces, He starts forth to confront them, and be- 
fore setting out for Jerusalem plainly foretells the 
coming conflict and its dread results. He seemed in 
haste now to meet His enemies, and to bring to a con- 
summation His life work. On His way up to Jerusalem 
He again worked wonderful cures, and by the raising 
of Lazarus at the very gates of the ecclisiastical citadel, 
roused back for a moment the popular admiration and 
allegiance to Himself. 

And so, when after resting over the Sabbath in 
Bethany, He came forth on Sunday morning to pro- 
ceed towards Jerusalem, He found the streets and the 
neighboring roads thronged with the people who had 
come out from Jerusalem to see Him. At the first 
sight ol Him among them, they rent the air with their 
shouts, and strewed the way with their garments and 
the branches they had plucked hastily from the trees ; 
and, most wonderful of all, they recognized Him at last 
as the Messiah, crying out: "Hosanna to the Son of 
David ; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
Lord." Mark, He is no longer the carpenter, but the 



24 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

descendent of their greatest king ; He is no longer the 
impositor, but He that cometh in the Name of the 
Lord. 

There is no doubting the significance of these words 
and this enthusiasm. It was a Messianic demonstra- 
tion, He accepted it as such ; He yielded to the de- 
sire of the multitude to make Him King at last, but He 
never allowed them to mistake the character of His 
kingdom, and, as if to insist upon this idea, He en- 
tered Jerusalem upon an ass, to typify his reign of sim- 
plicity and peace, a kingdom not of this world, but of 
Heaven. Hearing the people's shouts, the rulers asked 
the cause, and were told that Jesus had entered the 
city at the head of an army of people. In that moment, 
they decided that the only way to rid the nation of this 
disturber was by death. 

On Tuesday, they came to Him as He taught in the 
temple, and in all the pomp of official costume, they 
confronted the simple Galilean while the multitudes 
looked on. They were determined to make the way 
easy for the end they had purposed, by discrediting 
Him first before the people, so they entered into a con- 
troversy with Him on the most delicate and danger- 
ous topics. It is illustrative of their cunning that the 
question they put Him was one, which, answered either 
way, was sure to work Him disaster. That question 
was: " Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?" An 
affirmative answer would have turned the people in- 
stantly against Him; a negative answer would bring 
down upon Him the punishment of the Roman gover- 
nor. His answer, so well known, was the saddest dis- 
appointment to them, and seeing their disadvantage, 
and profiting by their silence, He let loose the storm 
of His indignation against them, giving unrestrained 
expression to the pent-up criticism of a life-time, un- 
til, by exposing their ignorance and their hypocritical 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 25 

practices in sentences that fell like strokes of light- 
ning, He made them the scorn and the laughing stock 
of all who heard Him. 

If anything was needed to settle their determination 
this was more than sufficient. He must die and die at 
once. That very evening, the Sanhedrim convened to 
plan His death, and even while they were maturing 
their design, one of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot, 
appeared, and, for a price, offered to deliver Him into 
their hands. The end now comes rapidly. 

On Thursday evening, He sat down with the twelve 
to eat the Passover. In that scene we witness the in- 
describable tenderness and grandeur of His soul. It 
is in the face of death that true nobility exhibits itself 
in its fullest beauty. Not a shadow was visible upon 
His face during that final feast of love, where, as if be- 
forehand, He offered Himself as a sacrifice in the mys- 
terious blessing of the bread and wine in the establish- 
ment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It seems as 
if, for Him, the passion was already passed, and the 
glory of His exaltation even then breaking around 
Him. 

Among the deep shadows of the gardens, He wan- 
dered alone, gazing with His Divine Vision, into all 
the terrors that awaited Him. His Body shook with 
dreadest fear, but His Spirit, strengthened by His 
Father's Presence, controlled the anguish of the fore- 
sight, and He comes forth deliberately to face a most 
cruel execution. Through the branches of the olive 
trees, He sees the crowd, with the traitor at its head, 
coming to arrest Him. They have brought lanterns, 
thinking they will be obliged to search through the 
mountain caves and woods to find Him. Instead of 
that, He comes forth to the entrance of the garden 
and awaits them. At sight of Him, majestic even now, 
they quailed like cravens* He voluntarily surrenders 



26 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 



Himself into their hands, and they lead Him back to 
the city. How the Pharisees and Sadducees must 
have rejoiced. At last, Jerusalem was safe and their 
power again secure. 

It was now about midnight: the rest of the night 
and the early hours of the morning were occupied 
with the necessary legal proceedings. There must be 
two trials, the ecclesiastical and the civil, each to be 
conducted in three stages. The first took place before 
Annas, then before Caiaphas, and lastly before the 
Sanhedrim. The civil trial was first conducted before 
Pilate, the Roman governor, then before Herod, the 
local ruler, and once more before Pilate. This was 
due to the political situation of the country. Judea 
was subject to Rome. Now the Romans were careful 
always to allow their provinces to retain a semblance 
of power ; so the Sanhedrim, the supreme ecclesiastical 
court of the Jews, was still permitted to try religious 
cases ; but if the sentence passed was a capital one, the 
Roman governor reserved to himself the right to in- 
quire into the case himself and pronounce the final 
sentence. The crime of which Jesus was accused was 
a religious one : the Sanhedrim passed the death sen- 
tence, so it must be confirmed by the Roman governor, 
Pilate, who happened at that time to be in Jurusalem, 
where he generally came during the Passover. 

It is needless here to follow all the details of this 
double trial : the lying, the perjury, the deceitfulness 
of the witnesses, each of whom contradicted the other, 
are well known. For a moment, it seemed as if the case 
had completely broken down. Christ stood before 
His judges in silent dignity : fearful that he would slip 
out of their hands, and that all their ingenuity would 
come to naught, they determined to make Himself His 
own accuser. Caiaphas rose from his seat, and facing 
Christ, demanded of Him that He tell them openly, 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 27 

and thus to criminate Himself, whether He was the 
Christ, the Son of God. With great solemnity, yet 
with perfect simplicity and straight forwardness, He 
answered that He was. Instantly, the sentence of 
death was pronounced. 

The next morning, between six and seven o'clock, He 
was brought before the governor. The court was 
held in the open air. Pilate hated the Jews, and re- 
cognized that the chief cause of their enmity to Jesus 
was envy. He cared little for their religious conten- 
tions: conspiracy against the Roman government and 
his own power, was the only crime which would move 
him to pronounce condemnation : so he plainly asked 
Christ, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" arid from 
His answer, gathered immediately that as a spiritual 
King, He was no rival of Caesar's authority. He 
could see nothing of the revolutionist in that pure, 
peaceful and melancholy face and at once acquitted 
Him. The announcement was received with shrieks 
ol disappointment which omened ill for the peace of 
the city. So he devised a compromise, by sending 
Him to be tried by Herod. This prince cared only for 
pleasure and amusement, and was only glad to escape 
all responsibility of the case by sending Him back to 
Pilate again. 

It was the custom at this time, during the Passover, 
to release any prisoner the people might name. Pilate 
hoping to escape through this loop-hole from his dis^ 
agreeable position, offered them the choice between 
Christ and Barrabas. They chose Barrabas. Again 
he sought to move them by the pitiful spectacle of the 
Ecce Homo, but it was useless. The only answer he 
received was one that made Him tremble for his very 
position. " If thou let this Man go, thou art no friend 
of Cassar's." That was the cry that made him throw 
justice to the winds and sealed the doom of Christ, 



2$ CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

and immediately He was led forth to the heights of 
Golgotha. Crucifixon was the death reserved for slaves 
and revolutionaries. The idea seems to have been sug- 
gested by the practice of nailing up vermin in an ex- 
posed place. To this death, horrible in suffering and 
most infamous in character, Christ was condemned. 
There is much question and discussion as to the place 
of execution. It was probably a wide open space near 
the city, on the side of a much frequented thorough- 
fare, for we learn that besides the spectators standing 
about, there were others passing to and fro who shouted 
out words of mockery at Christ upon the cross. 

As to the year of this event, there is also much dis- 
cussion. Julius Africanus, Lactantius and Tertullian 
place it in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, in the 
year 29 ol the Christian era. Natullus Alexander argues 
for the year 33, and Baronius 32. As to the age of 
Christ Himself, when He met death, there is the same 
dispute ; the common tradition is that He was 33. 
Others maintain that He was 34, and still others, 
perhaps with stronger reasons, hold that He was at 
least 38. Up to now the question remains unsettled. 

There was never an enterprise in the world which 
seemed more completely at an end than did Christ's 
mission on that day. Death ends all controversies. 
He was in the grave and all His pretentions with Him. 
Even His disciples and apostles seemed to accept this 
as settled. Can anything convince us better of this 
than the words of the two travelers to Emmaus : "We 
trusted." Mark — it is in the past tense. " We trusted 
that it had been He Who should have redeemed Israel." 
Could words express more utter disappointment ? But 
by a testimony most irrefutable, coming as it does 
from eye witnesses of the fact, from the Roman soldiery, 
who cannot be accused of interest in the narration, — 
and the apostles, who were perhaps as much surprised 



CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 29 

as the soldiers, Christ, on the third day, came alive 
from the tomb. Perhaps the very best proof of this 
is the change in the apostles themselves. Nothing 
short of the most palpable and material evidence coulcl 
have persuaded them of this fact; that they were 
persuaded, is even stronger evidence than the testi- 
mony of the Roman soldiers. 

For forty days He lived again among them. He ate 
with them; He walked with them; He took their 
hands in His own ; He made them touch Him in the 
wound He had received in death, — and all this seems 
to have been necessary to prove that they had not been 
deluded. 

And when at last, this had been assured, and when 
He had explained to them in complete fulness the 
nature of their work, before their very eyes, He was 
lifted up above them and borne beyond the clouds, 
out of their sight, into that world to which He right- 
fully belonged. 

In briefest possible outline is thus the life story of 
the Founder of God's Church indicated. Passing as is 
this glimpse, we gather here the concept of the origin 
of Christianity. It is the seed of the greatest organ- 
ization the world has ever known. To human eyes it 
began in a stable, and was buried in the sepulchre near 
Calvary. Humbler and more insignificant birth, no 
human project ever had : yet to-day, it fills the world, 
and even now, seems only commencing its career of 
marvellous development. 

Without the knowledge of this chapter of the 
Church's history, that is, the story of its Founder, at 
the very sowing of the seed, the full force of its later 
growth can never be truly realized. And so the better 
to grasp the import of the pages to be deciphered in 
later conferences, it was necessary to bring the mind 
back to the first inceptions of this most absorbing and 



30 CHRIST, THE BUILDER. 

interesting story, and thus by gradual stages to pass 
from the very first scenes of the great drama, through 
each successive period to our own times. And of all 
the arguments adduced to prove the divinity of the 
Church's character and mission, none can possibly be 
stronger than the simple tale of the life of Jesus Christ. 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 



We open the Gospels and read that among those 
who followed The Lord, Christ chose twelve, and 
called them apostles. And these were Simon, whom 
He called Peter, and Andrew his brother ; James and 
John ; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thomas ; 
James and Simon, called Zealotes ; Judas, son of James, 
and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed Him. To them 
He intrusted the mission which He Himself had re- 
ceived from His Divine Father ; to represent on earth 
the person of Christ, to be partakers of His power, to 
lead the world to the knowledge of the Saviour, and to 
persuade Jew and Gentile, Greek and Roman, that He 
was the Son of God, the true Redeemer. 

Thus He entrusted to them this arduous task : "All 
power is given to Me in Heaven and on earth ; going, 
therefore, teach all nations, baptising them in the Name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, 
even unto the consummation of the world" (St. Matthew, 
Chap. 28.) Consider for a moment the import of these 
words. Christ, Who speaks them, was soon, as He 
Himself knew, to be treated as the outcast of His own 



32 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

race, and they to whom He spoke were men utterly 
unknown, without influence or power, and yet, like 
some great ruler of a powerful nation addressing his 
mighty generals, whose name filled the world with ter- 
ror, He gives them this command to subdue the whole 
world to His control. 

It would seem, according to human wisdom, that 
this great commission might only be entrusted to men 
who by talent and known ability, were fitted to carry it 
out. Yet Christ acted otherwise ; and for the unspeak- 
ably great work of preaching the Gospel, against which 
forces most obstinate and strong arrayed themselves in 
opposition, chose men who seemed of all others least 
fitted to perfect this work ; men of the lowest class of 
society, ignorant, timid, inexperienced, and who even 
in their own country, were looked down upon and de- 
spised as mere fishermen. Kings must choose their 
ministers from among the ablest, wisest, boldest and 
most enlightened of their subjects ; for in imparting to 
them authority, they cannot with that impart talent 
and ability, but must presuppose it. But Christ, 
with the authority which He communicated to His 
representatives, communicated also the wisdom, the 
knowledge, the power and strength necessary to ex- 
tend and enforce it. 

It was evidently the design of Christ to prove from 
the very beginning the divinity of the Church's origin, 
and His own omnipotence ; since it would be plain to all 
that, humanly speaking, the means He chose were the 
least fitted to compass the end proposed. For, behold, 
on one side a handful of men of lowly birth, of no au- 
thority, unlettered, uncultured and despised ; and on 
the other, the whole world, Jewish and Pagan, emper- 
ors, high priests, philosophers and all that is rich, pow- 
erful and great. Count the forces arrayed for battle 
on either side, and who will doubt as to which should 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 33 

naturally belong the victory ? Picture these twelve 
standing before the wisest and most learned of their 
age, and proclaiming to the world in the very face of 
kings and rulers, "Till now you have all gone astray. 
You are ignorant of the first rudiments of true philos- 
ophy. Wise, as you pretend to be, you are less than 
children in the knowledge of truth. And truth, 
what is that? It is Christ crucified, whom you, 
oh, Jewish nation, repute a scandal, and you, Gentiles, 
consider folly, but to us, who have been called of God, 
wisdom and virtue." 

Fancy this picture and then ask who will listen to 
these twelve or obey their teaching ? If, therefore, 
notwithstanding the world listens and obeys, it must 
be plain that not by human means, but by the power 
of God, this wonder, this greatest of all miracles, is ac- 
complished. 

The same power which brought the universe out of 
nothing transformed these humble instruments into an 
almost omnipotent agency in the completion of its de- 
signs ; and made of the lowly fishermen, timid, weak 
and ignorant as they were, fearless champions, sublime 
philosophers and most intrepid warriors, who feared 
not the frown of kings, disputed with great intellects, 
and challenged the teachings of the most learned schol- 
ars. This wondrous transformation came upon the 
apostles on the day of Pentecost, which is, therefore, 
considered the birthday of the church. 

On that great day, the apostles and disciples "were 
all gathered in the same place, and there came of a 
sudden from Heaven, the sound as of a great whirlwind, 
and it filled all the house where they were assembled ; 
and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, 
and they rested upon each of them, and they were 
filled with the Holy Ghost ; and they began to speak 
various tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave 



34 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

them to speak. And there dwelt in Jerusalem, Jews, 
religious men of every nation under heaven, and as 
the word went abroad there assembled a great multi- 
tude, and they were all astonished, each one to hear 
them speaking his own tongue ; and they wondered, 
saying: 'Are not all these who speak Galileans, and 
how is it that each of us hears the language in which 
we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and 
the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappa- 
docia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, Egypt 
and the countries of Lybia which is near Cyrene, and 
strangers from Rome ; Jews also and proselytes ; the 
inhabitants of Crete and Arabia: we have heard them 
speak in our tongues the greatness of God/ And all 
wondered among themselves, saying : 'What may this 
be?'" 

It was by this means that Christ infused into the 
apostles wisdom of mind and strength of heart to 
commence the difficult work of preaching to every 
nation the divine word. The Holy Ghost who on that 
day descended upon them there in the cenacle, was 
sent to them as a confirmation and consolation ; flood- 
ing their intelligence with light, illumining their 
minds whereby truths invisible before, or vaguely 
seen, became to their vision clear as the day ; ani- 
mating their very tongues to marvellous eloquence, 
and firing their souls with a zeal that made them burn 
to carry to the ends of the world the doctrines of the 
new faith. Before, they were, as we know from the 
Gospels themselves, vacillating, timorous, almost 
puerile ; always, misunderstanding the words ol their 
Divine Master, who even after repeated explanations, 
still found them incapable of grasping His meaning. 
Now, all is changed : the deepest mysteries are plain 
to them, and henceforth, no power on earth can move 
them from their loyalty. 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 35 

And see, how on that very day, without waiting for 
the night to pass, they begin the work which they 
already yearn to complete. Is it not significant that 
before they could travel to the ends of the world, the 
world had come to them? — "Men of every nation 
under heaven." To that assembly, Peter, chief of the 
Apostolic senate, first spoke, and preached the doctrine 
of Christ Crucified, whose Divinity He confirmed by 
the facts of His Resurrection and Ascension. And as 
a result, three thousand souls received the light and 
professed Christ, the first fruit of the Apostolic 
mission. 

It is almost impossible to understand in the face of 
this direct and clear narration, recorded in the Acts, 
how men can credit the childish imaginations of 
Renan, who dares to affirm that the fact of Pente- 
cost never took place ; declaring that the apostles 
were deceived or deluded in fancying the apparition of 
tongues, and the rush, as it is described of the Holy 
Spirit. " These ignorant men," he says, " credulous 
and imaginative, had come together to wait the coming 
of the Holy Ghost. With this preconceived idea in 
their minds, any extraordinary natural phenomenon, 
happening at the time, would have passed as a super- 
natural sign. Just at that time, a terrible whirlwind 
arose and a storm passed over the city, accompanied 
by thunder and lightning. The windows of the cen- 
acle were naturally blown open, and the terrified 
apostles, at this sight, believed that they had received 
the Holy Ghost. Filled with this delusion and thus 
excited to a sudden exaltation of mind, they ran out of 
the house, talking confusedly, whatever came to their 
lips, and so they believed they had received the gift 
of tongues. 

To what depths of folly will not men go in attempt- 
ing to discredit the supernatural. But all the world 



36 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

knows that literary style rather than logic and historical 
accuracy, is to be found in the writings of Renan. By 
what laws of criticism does Renan prove that the 
apostles and the disciples, to the number of one hundred 
and twenty, were deceived in the matter they person- 
ally experienced, mistaking for the coming of the Holy 
Ghost the noise and thunder of a passing storm ? How 
can he prove that the apostles imagined themselves 
possessed of the gift of tongues when in reality, they 
only prattled in fear of the thunder and lightning. 
How can he demonstrate that the great mass of people 
who listened to the apostles thus muttering unin- 
telligible sounds, mistook their ravings for words of 
their own language so different from the mother tongue 
of the apostles ? Would the miracle be less or easier 
to explain, to suppose that inarticulate and confused 
mutterings should by chance, form complete and dis- 
tinct sentences in a language unknown ? But to Renan, 
proof counts for nothing. Any theory, however fanciful 
and unfounded, seems valid if only he can explain away 
the supernatural. 

It is an established rule of criticism that a fact narrated 
by a trustworthy author, must be admitted as related 
unless it involves an intrinsic repugnance, or is attested 
by witnesses unworthy of credence. 

Now who is it that narrates this fact of the descent 
of the Holy Ghost? It is the Evangelist, St. Luke, 
who, in the beginning of his Gospel, affirms that he 
relates the things that happened as they were told him 
by those who had seen them with their eyes. This 
miracle of Pentecost, among the rest, St. Luke had 
heard from the apostles and disciples themselves. 
They, therefore, must be considered as the victims of 
the illusion. But read critically the speech of St. 
Peter on this occasion delivered to that vast multitude, 
and judge whether it was likely to be the result of 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 37 

phantasy or imagination. It is a masterpiece of calm 
reasoning and logical persuasion, full of most solid 
argument, methodically sustained, not a sign or trace 
that could indicate, even remotely, anything of mental 
illusion or fanciful deception, and the result strengthens 
and proves that those who listened to him, heard no 
raving dreamer but a profound and cogent reasoner; 
deeply stirred, if you will, to enthusiasm of his subject, 
but always, nevertheless, deliberate and conclusive. 
Moved by his discourse, three thousand people gave 
their assent to the truths he preached. Can Renan ex- 
plain this fact by the theory of illusion and imagination ? 
If so, he only adduces one miracle to disprove another. 

The witnesses to the fact of Pentecost were not dcfew 
people, but were an immense multitude of three thou- 
sand souls, strangers to the apostles and even their 
enemies. If such testimony may be waived aside in 
proof of a historic fact, then let us close forever the 
pages of history and bid goodbye to truth and certaiinly 
in all science. 

From that day, began the spreading of the knowledge 
of the new faith. Filled with zeal for their mission, 
the apostles, from that time, ceased not day or night in 
their labors, to bring to most distant peoples the 
knowledge which makes men free. In a short time, 
the number of believers increased and many of the 
priests even, who a little while before had clamored 
tor the blood of Christ, became subject to the faith. 
'• And they were all of one heart and one mind. " At 
once, the Jewish rabbis and leaders, seeing this sudden 
growth of the Church, and fearing for their own posi- 
tion and influence, arose against the apostles and their 
followers, and began a virulent persecution by the 
stoning of Stephen, who full of grace and strength, 
had worked many and great wonders ; and the disciples 
of Christ, seeing the danger, fled throughout Judea 



38 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

and Samaria, while the apostles remained in Jerusalem 
to comfort and console the infant Church. 

It was at this time that Christ called to His service, 
one who had distinguished himself among- the bitterest 
enemies of the Cross, and from a merciless persecutor, 
became a very vessel of election. Saul, the persecutor, 
became Paul, the apostle, preaching the mysteries of 
the new faith with all the zeal that had distinguished 
his former hatred of it. Filled with the love of Christ, 
who had appeared to him, on the road to Damascus, and 
persuaded of the truth of the Gospel, he hurried from 
place to place, and before Jew and Gentile spent himself 
in preaching,exhorting, writing; and suffering for his zeal 
and labors the greatest trials, the fiercest persecution, 
the direst opposition. Beginning the work of his apos- 
tolate in Damascus, he continued it in Tarsus and An- 
tioch with such results, that in the last named place 
those converted were the first to be called Christians. 
We read of his travels and labors and wonder how it 
was possible for a single man to accomplish such deeds. 
When we consider the difficulties of travel which then 
existed, the perils by sea and by land that beset the 
wayfarer, and then follow this champion of the faith 
from one city to another,, over hill and mountain, 
through strange lands, and across stormy seas, we 
wonder at the hardships he endured and the dang- 
ers he underwent. 

From Antioch, where with Barnabas, he received 
the imposition of hands, he set out first, to Seleucia, and 
thence to Salamina, the capital of the Island of Cyprus, 
the birthplace of St. Barnabas. Thence, passing over 
the whole island to Paphos, on he went to Perge, in 
Pamphilia ; to Antioch in Pisidia ; at each place ad- 
dressing the multitudes and gaining many to the faith. 
Next we find him at Aconium, whence, driven by the 
Jews, who threatened to stone him, he flies to Lystra and 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 39 

from there to Derbe in Lycaonia, where, on account of 
his wondrous eloquence, the people believed him to be a 
god, and thought that Mercury had come among them. 
Pamphilia is the next scene of his labors. From there 
he passed to Macedonia and on still to Thessalonica, 
and then, by sea to Athens, where he disputed in the 
Synagogue and addressed the philosophers in the Are- 
opagus with such conviction and force of argument 
that "some of them adhering to him believed, among 
them was Dionysius, the Areopagite." 

We see him next at Corinth, where for a year and a 
half, he labored incessantly preaching and baptizing. 
Over the sea he passes into Syria, arriving at length 
at Ephesus, thence down to Caesarea and Jerusalem, 
returning again to Antioch. Nor did he remain long 
in this city among the friends who welcomed him back. 
He still could not rest from his labors till in other 
lands and among other peoples he had carried the 
knowledge of Christ. Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia and 
Phrygia next hear his voice, returning again to Ephe- 
sus, where his labors promised so rich a harvest that 
the pagan priests feared that their temples would be 
deserted. Although foreseeing the dangers that 
awaited him in Jerusalem, he returned to the holy city, 
where he was, at length, cast into prison. Condemned 
to be scourged, he escapes this punishment by appeal- 
ing to the emperor, to whom he is sent to be tried. 
And behold, the great apostle of the Gentiles arrives 
at the very capital of the pagan world, in Rome, where 
for two full years, he dwelt in comparative freedom, 
laboring day and night for the conversion of the 
Roman people. 

Unable now to continue his travels, nevertheless, he 
contrives by writing and letters to hold communica- 
tion with the Christian world and with the churches 
which he had founded, instructing, correcting and ex- 



40 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 



horting them in the faith they had received from him. 
And into the distant regions where his voice could no 
longer reach, his pen still carried the message he 
yearned to deliver. 

Acquitted in Rome of the crimes with which he was 
charged, again in distant regions he carried this same 
message, and never wearied in the work of his glori- 
ous apostolate till under Nero, in the city of Rome, he 
offered up his very blood and life for Christ. 

Let me conclude these words upon the preaching 
and labors of ^t. Paul with the words of St. Clement. 
" God's messenger, Paul preaching in the east and the 
west, taught the whole world, reaching in his zeal to 
the very ends of the earth. He fought the good fight, 
suffering till the end. In prison, banished, stoned, he 
ceased not from his labors till by his glorious martyr- 
dom he was called from earth to Christ's own kingdom, 
leaving for us in his life a model of zeal, patient en- 
durance, and noblest suffering." 

Let us turn now from this champion of Christ to 
consider the labors of him, whom Christ had chosen as 
the Prince of the apostles, the primate of His Church 
on earth. We have seen already, in the story of the 
day of Pentecost, that the first work of the apostolate 
was inaugurated by Peter, who on that occasion, com- 
menced his labors as head of the Church by preaching 
to the multitude in Jerusalem, and gathering to the 
fold of which he was now chief shepherd, three thousand 
souls. Next, we see him healing in the Name of Jesus 
of Nazareth, the poor cripple who, at the beautiful 
gate of the temple, asked alms of those that went in. 
At the sight of this miracle the people gathered in 
great crowds ; and St. Peter again taking advantage of 
the presence of this multitude, filled with wonder at 
his power, addressed them ; and as a second fruit of 
his preaching, many of them who had heard the word 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 41 

believed and the number of the men was made five 
thousand. Stirred to anger and jealousy the priests 
and Sadducees seized him and cast him into prison. 
No sooner was he released than he again applied him- 
self to preaching the word of God and to confirming 
his doctrines by wonderful miracles. 

Nor were his labors confined to Jerusalem alone. 

In the Acts, we read of his miracles performed at 
Lydda and in Joppa. In the last named place, by a 
supernatural vision given to him while rapt in ecstacy, 
he saw that it was the will of God and of Christ that 
the Church was intended to be truly Catholic, opening 
its doors not only to the tribes of Israel, but to all the 
world ; and that not only the Jews, but the Gentiles 
also, had been redeemed by the blood of Christ ; and 
recognizing that God is not a respector of persons but 
that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh 
justice is acceptable to Him. He went to Cesaraea, 
and received into the faith Cornelian, a centurion of 
the Italian cohort, who with all the members of his 
house was baptized in the Name of Christ. He re- 
turned to Jerusalem, then went to Antioch where he 
ruled the Church for seven years. 

Stirred by the constant increase and growth of the 
infant Church, the Jews arose in persecution. And 
Herod Agrippa, not content with putting to death 
the apostle St. James, sought also to please the Jews, 
b}^ condemning to a like fate, St. Peter. He seized the 
apostle, whom he cast into prison, bound with chains, 
expecting to entertain the Jews by the spectacle of his 
death, after the days of the Passover. But the angel 
of God delivered Peter from the hands of the tyrant 
and the expectations of the Jews, and God, who draws 
good from evil, sent this prince ol the apostles to 
preach to other nations. 

Question has been raised as to whether Christ had 



42 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 



entrusted to St. Peter the apostolate of the Jews only, 
or whether it extended to the Gentiles also. Doubt- 
less, the origin of this discussion arose lrom the words 
of St. Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians : " To me 
was committed the gospel of the uncircumcised as to 
Peter was that of the circumcision. But how can 
there be any doubt about this question, that to St. 
Peter was committed also to preach the gospel to the 
Gentiles, when we know that by Christ Himself, he 
was ordered in Joppa, to receive into the Church 
Cornelius, the centurion and his family. And again, 
when as we see, that at the Apostolic council of 
Jerusalem, he himself, attests that the mission to the 
Gentile as well as Jew, was delivered alike to all the 
apostles; and when moreover we consider that St. 
Peter occupied the primacy of the whole church, the 
absurdity of such a question becomes manitest. While 
St. Peter remained in the east, he especially addressed 
himself to the Jews, following thus, in the footsteps of 
our Lord, but no one may suppose from this that he 
preached to the Jews alone. 

Liberated from prison and delivered out of the 
hands of Herod, it would seem as though the writer of 
the Acts feared to indicate the place to which he fled, 
saying simply ; " and he went elsewhere. " " Abiit in 
alium locum. " And what was this place ? Some 
authorities say that by that is meant Rome. Others, 
however, think that before reaching the eternal city he 
went to evangelize the Hebrews who were dispersed 
throughout Pontus, Galatia, in Asia and Bithynia. 

And having sewn the seed of the gospel over these 
provinces, he came finally to the capital of the Roman 
empire, there to continue his apostolic labors, and 
found the Roman church, thus leaving to his successors 
in the see of Rome, as an inheritance, the primacy of 
the universal church, which he had received from 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 43 

Christ, together with the gifts and prerogatives ne- 
cessary to the perpetual conservation of the unity of 
the faith, and of the church- 
To quote the words of Saint Cyprian : " Primatus 
Petro datur ut una christi ecclesia, et cathedra una 
monstretur. " 

The critics dispute among themselves, as to the ex- 
act time when the head of the apostolic college first 
came to Rome. Some place the date at the time of 
the second year of the reign of Claudius, the 42nd of 
the Christian era. Others place it at the time ol the reign 
of Nero. From Mammachi we learn that till the times 
of Scaligerus, the common opinion was that St. Peter 
made a first visit to Rome, in the time of Claudius, and 
after an absence of a short period, returned during the 
reign of Nero, and thus the two other opinions are not 
contradictory, but supplementary the one of the other. 
Nor can we here ignore the fact that some writers, 
have denied altogether the coming of St. Peter to 
Rome, and that in consequence the claim of the Roman 
church to the primacy is utterly unfounded ; inasmuch 
as the Roman Pontiffs cannot be considered the suc- 
cessors of St. Peter. 

Among others, Gavazzi standing on this ground calls 
the popes usurpers of Peter's authortity, false and lying 
pretenders, their prerogatives merely grounded on 
fables without any real historical foundation. Permit 
me therefore in this place, to briefly notice this asser- 
tion, which though again and again refuted with the 
most substantial and forcible historical arguments, 
even by Protestants and infidels, who cannot be sus- 
pected of favoring the claims of the popes or the 
church in this matter, is nevertheless constantly re- 
peated as if it had never been answered, and were 
indeed, unanswerable. It is not surprising to us that 
the vile calumniators of the church should refuse to 



44 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

consider fairly and with the impartiality that ought to 
be the first characteristic of the true historian, the in- 
contestible arguments that settle completely and de- 
finitively this important question. They value little 
the testimony of witnesses the most convincing, unless 
they make for the proof of their own pet theory. But 
I confess to feeling somewhat astonished and disap- 
pointed to find a man of the supposed erudition and 
breadth of view oi Canon Farrar, casting suspicion upon 
a fact so freely admitted by all reliable historians. We 
may not here linger over the long list of arguments, 
each one of them sufficient in itself to establish this 
fact of history beyond all possible doubt. Let me 
simply indicate briefly a few of the chief. And first 
let me ask, upon what grounds do our opponents base 
their denial, and then we must endeavor to weigh the 
force of their argumentation upon these premises. 

Their best argument is at most only a nega- 
ive one. They assert that we do not find in 
Holy Scripture any mention of St. Peter being 
in Rome. To this we might reply : granted. 
The Scripture is not a universal history, and we 
are treating now, not of a fact of revelation as such, 
but a purely historical fact. If, therefore, our position 
can be established and confirmed by other incontest- 
able documents, the silence of the Scriptures proves 
nothing. But we do not concede this assertion. On 
the contrary, in Holy Writ sufficiently clear mentien 
is made by St. Peter himself of his presence in Rome, 
for in his first epistle he writes to those whom he ad- 
dresses : "The church in Babylon salutes } t qu." Now 
^ve maintain that by Babylon is meant the Eternal 
City. If, therefore, we can prove that this very Epis- 
tle of St. Peter was written while he was at Rome and 
that by Babylon is meant Rome, it is manifest that the 
Scriptures are not silent on this point. 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 45 

Nothing can be surer than that all the Fathers of the 
Church and all the very earliest writers and commen- 
tators, both of the Eastern and Western churches 
agree upon this point : that among the early Christians 
the capital of the Roman Empire was known as the 
modern Babylon. Beginning with Clement of Rome 
and St. Ignatius, we have only to name Dionysius of 
Corinth, St. Iranaeus, Origen and the great Eusebius. 
Add to this the testimony of Tertullian, St. Cyprian, 
Lactantius, St. Ambrose and innumerable others, who 
may be supposed to have had the most correct knowl- 
edge of the meaning attached to this word. On the 
contrary, our opponents can name no single author of 
the slightest authority who holds their opinion. Can 
they explain such extraordinary lack of testimony, es- 
pecially when we consider that if by any possible ar- 
gument it could be proved that the Babylon here men- 
tioned signified the Babylon of geography, the whole 
catalogue of oriental fathers and commentators would 
have seized upon this interpretation to claim for the 
oriental church the great honor of the primacy? Is it 
possible to suppose that in all its struggles and at 
times bitter dissensions between the bishops of the 
Orient and the See of Rome, on questions of the 
greatest import and touching time-honored customs, 
which, nevertheless, for the sake of unity they were 
compelled to abandon in submission to the early popes, 
that not once was it even insinuated that at Babylon 
and not at Rome, St. Peter founded his See and ruled 
the church. The glory ol the oriental church, its in- 
dependence of the West were at stake ; and yet unani- 
mously, these fathers agree in the same interpretation 
of this word, put upon it by the Latin church. Can 
argument be stronger or proof more convincing? 
How can we understand such absolute agreement 
among them upon this subject, while at variance upon 



46 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

others, unless we admit that no other interpretation 
was possible? Therefore from the very Scriptures 
themselves, it is clear that St. Peter was at Rome. 

We might ask of our opponents the question, simple 
enough, if St. Peter, during the last twenty-five years 
of his life was not the bishop of Rome, and finally 
ended his life there, of what church was he bishop and 
where else did he die? Surely of an event of such im- 
portance there could be no lack of testimony, and yet, 
no other church in all the world lays claim to this 
honor but the See of Rome. Are we not familiar with 
the fact, that frequently different cities or countries 
claim the honor of birthplace ot great men ? Homer, 
Virgil and even St. Patrick are familiar examples of 
such dispute. How is it that no city or See has ever 
disputed with Rome the glory of Peter's last home 
and death? 

In this short conference it were impossible to dwell 
longer upon a subject which is no longer a matter of 
dispute among fair historians, who without exception 
affirm with Calvin : "I cannot withstand the consent 
of those writers who prove that Peter died at Rome." 

Every day archaeology, by its wonderful researches 
and discoveries, confirms beyond every possibility of 
doubt, the validity of these proofs. Therefore, we 
must either admit the fact of Peter's presence and 
death at Rome, or deny every other fact of history, 
and proclaim the reign of universal scepticism. 

As to the period during which St. Peter ruled the 
church in Rome, I do not delay here to discuss. I respect 
time-honored tradition which enumerates the length 
of years as 25, though upon this point there is much 
dissension among critical writers. Cardinal Bartolini 
proves by solid argument that St. Peter was martyred 
in the year 67. Conceding therefore, that he came to 
Rome in the second year of the reign of Claudius, the 



THE FOUNDATIONS. 47 



year 42 of the vulgar era, it is clear that his- 
tory and tradition agree as to the number of 
years of St Peter's reign. As to the question 
whether St. Peter, once arrived in Rome, con- 
tinued to remain there till his death, or at times de- 
parted from the Eternal City for short intervals, the 
latter opinion seems more probable ; for he was not 
only bishop of Rome, but still remained an apostle, 
and therefore would not be content to simply govern, 
but was anxious himself personally to spread the faith 
among the other people. In fact, we learn from Pope 
Innocent I. that he founded many churches through- 
out Italy and the adjacent islands, but finally return- 
ing to Rome, he became a victim to the Neronian de- 
crees and shed his blood for the faith, crucified head 
downwards in the year 67 of the Christian era. The 
place of his crucifixion is somewhat disputed. Some 
affirm that he suffered martyrdom on the Janiculum, 
a lofty hill overlooking Rome, where to this day the 
spot is pointed out where his cross was raised. On 
the contrary, many of the most excellent of modern 
historians and archaeologists, among them, Duchesne 
and Armellili, maintain by sufficiently strong argu- 
ment, that this place was not on the Janiculum but on 
the Vatican hill, in fact, on the very spot where now 
stands the sacristy of the Basillica dedicated to the 
name of the great apostle. Thus ended the life work 
of him who, chosen to be the rock upon which the 
Church of Christ was founded, proved his love, thrice 
confessed for Christ, his Master, Whom he had thrice 
denied, by incessant labors, toils and sufferings, until 
at last, he verified the words of Christ "Follow thou 
Me" by imitating Him even in His death. 

The question now arises what do we know of the 
work of the other apostles, and what the validity of 
the claim of the other churches to apostolic founda- 



48 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

tion. At the start, we must confess that of this ques- 
tion little is positively known, and much that is as- 
serted is of very uncertain proof. For first of all, 
none of the early writers have left us a complete his- 
tory of the acts and preaching of all the apostles ; 
much that was written by single authors of individual 
apostles has been lost or destroyed ; much that is left 
is of doubtful authority and genuinity. Yet there are 
not lacking some documents, authentic and convincing, 
which shed some light upon the story of the scenes of 
the labors of the rest of the apostolic band. 

We learn from the Acts that St. James, the Greater, 
brother of the Evangelist St. John, spread the Gospel 
in Judea, and so great was the number of conversions 
he wrought for the faith that he earned for himself the 
jealousies of Herod Agrippa, who in the year 44, had 
him put to death, to the great horror and indignation 
of the whole people, who universally loved and rev- 
ered him. It is claimed by some that he extended the 
work of his apostolate into Spain, and that indeed he 
was the founder of the church in that country. In 
proof of this, there is little more than mere assertion, 
as is evident from the works of the Boliandists and the 
dissertation on this subject by Natalis Alexander. 

Origen, in his various writings, speaks of the preach- 
ing of the apostles, Thomas, Andrew and John. Ac- 
cording to him, St. Thomas labored among the 
Parthians, Andrew sowed the good seed among the 
Scythians, and John evangelized the inhabitants of 
Asia Minor. (Eusebius, Book III, Chap. I). 

We know moreover from the Acts that St. John, 
before leaving Palestine, in company with St. Peter, 
instructed the Samaritans in the new faith ; and Ter- 
tullian, and St. Jerolymus locate him at Rome, where 
during the reign of Domitian, he was condemned to 
be thrown into a cauldrom of boiling oil, but coming 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 49 

forth unhurt, he was banished to the island ot Patmos. 

From Theodoretus, in his commentary on the 
Psalms, we learn that St. Andrew spread the Gospel 
in Greece, St. Gregoy Nanizianza affirms that he 
evangelized Epirus. According to St. Jerolomus, 
Achaia was the scene of his labors, where according to 
the same author, he ended his apostolic career by his 
death upon the cross, of which fact we have ample 
testimony from the description of his martyrdom 
written by the priests and deacons of the church of 
Achaia. And though the genuinity of these letters 
has been questioned, the truthfulness of their testimony 
is generally admitted. 

On the testimony of Jerolymus, we learn that St. 
Thomas labored not only in Parthia, but was carried 
by his zeal into farthest India, where he ended his life 
according to Theodoretus, at Matapore, by a glorious 
martyrdom, being transfixed by a sword. 

As to the apostle Philip, Eusebius quotes the letter 
of Polycrates to Pope Victor, to prove that he died in 
Hieropolis ; but it would seem that the great historian 
in this place confounded Philip the apostle with Philip 
the deacon, who is sometimes called also the apostle, 
in reality, we know extremely little of the story of the 
life and labors of St. Philip. The writings of Hypolitus 
Portuensis on the life of this apostle are considered 
universally by critics to be spurious. We have simply 
as a source of knowledge on this point, the tradition of 
the people of Phrygia that in that place he labored 
and died for the faith. 

Of the life of St. James the Less, we have clearer and 
more certain knowledge. He it is who was surnamed 
the Just, and was called the brother of the Lord. 
Ordained by the apostles, bishop of Jerusalem, he 
never left the region of Palestine, but gave his whole 
life to increasing and ruling the church, whose see 
was the holy city. 



50 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

In the council of Jerusalem, assembled to decide the 
question of the binding force of the ceremonies of the 
law upon the followers of the new faith, he adhered to 
the opinion of St. Peter, dispensing from the observance 
of the old decrees the Gentiles converted to the church. 
Moved however by the obstinacy of the Hebrews he 
counseled Paul to submit to the observance of these 
ceremonies, and St. Paul, in accordance with his wish, 
underwent the ceremony of purification. But neither 
his discretion and prudence, nor the holiness of his 
life saved him from a cruel death. The Jews, roused 
to indignation at St. Paul, who by his appeal to Caesar, 
had foiled the cruel conspiracy which they had planned 
against him, turned all their anger and hate against 
the holy bishop of Jerusalem. Leading him up to the 
roof of the temple, they demanded of him that to the 
tribes assembled in the square below, he should de- 
nounce Christ as an impostor; but instead, with 
wonderlul eloquence, he cried out to the enraged 
multitude that Jesus was the true Messias, whom they 
indeed in their blindness had put to death, but Who 
now, reigned in heaven at the right hand of His Father, 
and that one day He would return to judge the living 
and the dead. Infuriated by this impassioned dis- 
course, they flung him from the temple roof to the 
earth below, into the very midst of his enemies, who 
seizing the stones from the pavement hurled them 
upon his prostrate body, and so, still praying to the 
end for his heartless murderers, he breathed his last. 
And thus ended the life of this apostle, whose name 
still lives glorious even among the Jews. And Josephus 
Flavius attributes the ruin of Jerusalem to his unjust 
death from the hands of his countrymen. 

Of St. Bartholomew, little is known, except that 
Eusebius, Rufinus and Socrates affirm that he carried 
the Gospel into India. St. Chrysostom, in his homily on 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 5 1 

the apostles, attributes to Bartholomew the conversion 
of the people in Licaonia, and Armenia. Pantenus in 
the second century of the church, found already among 
the Christian of India, the tradition that the Gospel 
had been preached in that country by St. Bartholomew ; 
a tradition which confirmed as it is, by the statement 
of many excellent of the earlier writers, deserves to be 
considered as a sure and well founded historical argu- 
ment. Where he died and the manner of his death are 
still questions for debate among historians. Some 
affirm that he was crucified in Urbanopolis, a city of 
Armenia ; others, with some show of argument, held 
that he suffered by decapitation at Albanopolis, another 
city of the same country. The question is still un- 
settled. 

It was thought for a long time that the body of St. 
Bartholomew was preserved in Rome, and was vener- 
ated in the church of St. Bartolomeo all Isola, but 
now, it seems more certain according to the Bolland- 
ists, that the body there preserved is the body of St. 
Paulinus, bishop of Nola, and that the relics of St. 
Bartholomew are really preserved in Benevento. 

To come to St. Matthew, the Evangelist, again we 
grieve at the lack of real historic testimony regarding 
his life and preaching. We know little more than that 
Rufinus and Socrates, very early historians and Chris- 
tian chroniclers, trace his mission to Ethiopia. 

The life of Simon, the apostle is. also shrouded in 
mystery. Nicephorus Calixtus, a writer of the four- 
teenth century, attempts to prove that he carried the 
faith into Egypt, Lybia, Numidia, Mauritania, and even 
to the British isles ; but the learned Bollandists reject 
his testimony, adding : "Of the life of St. Simon, the 
apostle, we are utterly ignorant. Even from the Gos- 
pels we learn nothing but his name." Of all the apos- 
tles, Simon has left the smallest record. 



52 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 



Of the apostle Jude, we know that he wrote the 
Epistle called Catholic, which Origen describes as full 
of robust reasoning concerning supernatural grace ; 
but of his apostolate and preaching, again we are left 
in almost complete ignorance. St. Paulinus writes 
that he preached in Lybia, by which name in the early 
times was designated all Africa. But the best critical 
scholars reject this opinion as utterly unfounded. 
Were there any truth in this, indeed, how could we ex- 
plain that St. Augustine concedes that the African 
church could not trace its origin to apostolic times, 
and that Victor, an African bishop, imploring against 
the Arian Vandals who devastated Africa, the aid of 
the apostles, makes no special mention of St. Thad- 
deus, that is Jude, who, as the founder of that church 
would certainly have been invoked as its patron and 
defender. On the other hand, it can be amply proved 
that he preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia, for, ac- 
cording to the traditions of Syria and Chaldea, this 
apostle is considered the founder of their church ; or 
at least, that among the other apostles who personally 
preached to these people is to be reckoned also, Judas 
Thaddeus ; and the calendars and other ecclesiastical 
monuments of the oriental church, some genuine and 
others apocryphal, agree with perfect accord, upon 
this fact. It is the opinion ol the orientals that he 
ended his life by martyrdom in the city of Palmyra. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that St. Mat- 
thias was selected to fill the place of the traitor Judas, 
God himself, directing his choice by lot. With the 
other apostles he received the Holy Spirit on the day 
of Pentecost, and later became with them participator 
of their great mission, to preach the Gospel to all 
nations. But again we ask where was the special scene 
of his labors and where did he carry on the work of 
his apostolate. It is the common opinion that he 



THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 53 

preached in Macedonia and Ethiopia, based chiefly 
upon the authority of St. Jerolymus, who asserts that 
in the last named place he died and was buried. The 
manner of his death is entirely uncertain. A book 
written in the Hebrew language, entitled "the Acts of 
St. Matthias," asserts that he was stoned to death, and 
then beheaded, but this book is of doubtful authority ; 
and documents of equal historical value, describe his 
death by crucifixion. But whatever was his death, we 
are certain that he spent his life in the preaching of the 
Gospel and in the conversion of the peoples redeemed 
by the Blood of Christ. Neither of him, as of none of 
the other apostles, was the story of his lite recorded in 
books. The first laborers in the Lord's vineyard, 
made small account of Chronicles and records in per- 
ishable writing. Constantly employed in preaching 
and the labors of their ministry, those best able from 
close acquaintance with the apostles, to narrate the 
record of their lives, had little time for writing or the 
compiling of such memoirs as would have been to his- 
tory utterly beyond all value. 

From these brief outlines of the apostolic twelve, 
which I have here faintly described, it is easily under- 
stood that the knowledge of the apostles and their 
preaching is extremely limited. Of St. Paul alone, 
thanks to the author of the Acts, we have a somewhat 
detailed narration of the career. But while of the rest 
much remains in uncertainty either because the sources 
are apocryphal, or the writers are of a date long 
posterior to the apostolic times, still we must not con- 
clude that nothing of their lives is truly known; for 
the knowledge of a fact may not be historically certain 
and still the fact may be true. In these days, of doubt 
and iconoclasm, oi all revered traditions, how often is 
criticism abused ; by rejecting entirely every indica- 
tion or sign that is not established as of the utmost 



$4 THE APOSTLES, THE FOUNDATIONS. 

certainty, too many of our modern historians treat 
with contempt opinions worthy at least, on account of 
their venerable age, of respect and reverence. 

The apostles certainly received irom Christ the mis- 
sion to preach to all nations. He prophesied to them 
that they would be treated as criminals and dragged 
before the tribunals of kings and magistrates. They 
fulfilled their mission and verified His prophecy. The 
world will never know the true extent of their zeal, 
heroism and sell-sacrifice. No book will ever tell the 
complete record of their wondrous labors, of the days 
and nights spent in prayer and preaching, of the hours 
of terror, of hunger, of fatigue, which succeeded one 
another from the day of Pentecost to that of martyrdom. 

Looking back over the space of nineteen hundred 
years, considering the condition of that time, the lack 
of every convenience for travel and communication, 
we stand utterly amazed and speechless at the results 
they accomplished. Within a few short years, so short 
as to appear almost incredible, they had carried the 
faith into almost every region of the then known 
world, so that it could truthfully be said that their 
voice had reached to the very ends of the world. 
Thus was the faith of Christ established everywhere, 
and' these twelve humble fishermen, transformed by 
the Holy Spirit into valiant champions and intrepid 
generals, performed such miracles of daring conquest 
as the world has never known in all its history. We 
can read now but faintly the .story of their complete 
triumph over self, over the opposition of the whole 
world and the direst tyranny of the most powerful 
princes that have ever ruled. We must wait to fully 
and clearly comprehend their unspeakable virtue, 
zeal, magnanimity and sublimity of their lives till we 
behold them clothed in all the glory of princes upon 
the twelve thrones promised them by the lips of the 
Eternal Son of God. 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 



In the last conference, we watched the birth of the 
Church on the day of Pentecost, in the little cenacle at 
Jerusalem ; and tracing- the earliest indications of its 
growth, we followed the apostles in their career from 
Palestine, through all the different lands, where driven 
by persecution, and carried on by the zeal of their 
faith, they spread the new doctrines throughout the 
world. In different lands they planted this little seed, 
and then watered the soil that had received it with 
their life blood. We must push our research still 
further, and watch with interest, how warmed by the 
sun of God's providence and protection, the buried 
germ sprung forth into a thriving and sturdy tree, 
which, spreading its branches wider and wider, gave 
shelter to an innumerable throng and withstood the 
storms of centuries or persecution. 

In connection with this subject, namely, the propaga- 
tion of the Christian faith in the first three centuries, 
three questions present themselves as especially worthy 
of consideration, inasmuch as each has been the sub- 
ject of attack by those who would consider the spread 
of Christianity to be of no weight in establishing the 
divinity of its doctrines. And first, is it true that from 



$6 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

the very start, the number of converts to the new- 
faith was very considerable, in fact, wonderfully great ; 
or were the followers of the new religion a mere hand- 
ful, an inconsiderable few ? Secondly, what was the 
character, intellectually and socially, of the first be- 
lievers? Were they people of no position, a credulous 
and infatuated multitude, or were they rather of all 
classes, many of them among the richest, noblest and 
most learned of their day? Thirdly, can the propaga- 
tion of the faith among the nations be attributed to 
purely natural causes, or must we look for an explana- 
tion of its marvellously rapid growth in the divinity of 
its origin and its providential protection ? 

For a truthful answer to these questions, we must, 
like true historians, read the testimony of those, who 
have left to us a faithful description of the Church in 
the first centuries of its existence. Renan, speaking of 
the propagation of the faith, as it is recounted in the 
Acts of the Apostles and in the Letters of St. Paul, 
writes that there is little to boast of in the success of 
the Apostles in evangelizing the nations, " for, " says 
he, " they considered that they had spread the Gospel 
in a county when they had made a few addresses and 
preached a few sermons, " that as a rule, they considered 
themselves quite fortunate when they had made a 
dozen or so of converts ; that not unfrequently, the 
churches established in different places by the Apostles, 
of which we hear so much in the Acts and Epistles, 
consisted of fifteen or tw r enty people, and that all the 
converts brought to the faith by St. Paul in the East, 
and in the West, did not exceed a thousand. So that 
in Renan's eyes, the descriptions given by St. Luke 
and St. Paul, of the growth of the infant Church, are 
simple exaggerations, or, indeed open lies. 

Gibbon and Montesquieu, admitting the wonderful 
growth of the Church, pretend to explain it all by the 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 57 

operation of purely natural causes. But after all, un- 
like Renan, they do admit that the number of converts 
was very considerable, and indeed enormous. 

The accusation that the early Christians were of the 
lowest classes of society, people of little repute, and 
credulous women, is almost as old as Christianity it- 
self. For Origen himself, was obliged to refute this 
calumny which was common enough even in his time, 
and Menucius Felix also assures us that this was a 
common accusation against the followers of Christ. 
So that if to-day, we hear it said that after all, the 
Catholic Church is made up of people of no education 
or position, and is simply a gathering of the credulous 
and illiterate of the world, we must remember that 
this assertion has been repeated in all ages, back to the 
time of Christ Himself. But assertions are not argu- 
ments, and words are not facts. 

In studying the history of any event or any country, 
it is necessary to gather our knowledge from docu- 
ments which can be proved to be the most trustworthy 
description of the events narrated. According to this 
criterion, the story of the propagation of the faith in 
the earliest times is best studied in the Acts of the 
Apostles, whose author is St. Luke. It matters not 
now, whether the student be a Christian, a Jew or a 
Mohammedan. We are considering the credibility of 
the documents from a purely historical standpoint. 
Putting aside therefore, the question of inspiration, 
and looking at it simply as a book of human authority, 
this testimony of the Evangelist Luke fulfills all the 
requisites of credibility. How can our opponents 
prove that St. Luke did not know the facts he des- 
cribes, how can they prove that he was deceived or in- 
tended to deceive his readers ? 

He was a writer who described contemporaneous 
facts ; he was, moreover, a learned man and a veracious 



$8 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

witness. Some of the' things of which he writes, he 
saw with his own eyes, and the rest he describes as 
they were narrated to him by the apostles themselves, 
that is, by immediate witnesses. 

It, therefore, from a purely critical standpoint, we 
deny credence to a man who possesses all these pre- 
rogatives of credibility, of what facts of history can we 
be certain ? Now let us open the Acts of the Apostles 
to the place where is recorded in simple and concise 
terms, the story of the day of Pentecost. We find 
there that the number baptized and received into the 
Church on that occasion was three thousand people. 
Again later on, the same author tells us that on the 
occasion of the miracle wrought by St. Peter at the 
gate of the Temple, five thousand people believed and 
were aggregated to the faith. Here, therefore, within 
a few days from the birth of the Christian Church, we 
find that the number of converts made at Jerusalem 
alone, was over eight thousand. Now when we con- 
sider that in the natural order of events, the influence 
of this great number would be very considerable 
among their relatives, friends and circle of ac- 
quaintances, added to the fact that it became a duty 
of each one in turn to spread the knowledge of the 
true religion and become himself an apostle, it is evi- 
dent that in a very short time, this number would be 
at least doubled. And in point of fact, St. Luke con- 
firms the supposition, when he says, "that the multitude 
of believers increased every day," so that it was nec- 
essary to choose seven deacons to relieve the apostles 
of some of their minor duties. 

In this light we can understand how terrified the 
high priests and Pharisees became at the sight of such 
great desertion among their followers. What else can 
be assigned as a reason of the bitter jealousy they en- 
tertained towards the leaders of the new faith ? Nor 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 59 

were their conversions among the people alone, for 
upon the same authority we know that many, even 
among the priests, renounced the old religion and gave 
their allegiance to the new doctrines. If, therefore, 
as is narrated in the Acts, a great crowd of the priests 
became subject to the faith, it is evident that the in- 
fluence of this fact alone would have its effect upon a 
very wide circle of the Jews. 

It is true, indeed, that seeing the rapid spread of the 
new tenets, a fierce persecution was raised against the 
Church in Jerusalem during which St. Stephen was 
martyred and the disciples scattered. But this disper- 
sion of the Christians of Jerusalem was the \ery best 
means of carrying the faith to other lands. The disciple 
Philip, one of this number, evangelized the Samaritans, 
and with such fruit, that even Simon the Magician, 
who had for a long while deluded the people, himself 
received Baptism and brought over a great number of 
converts with him, so that it became necessary that the 
apostles, Peter and John, should go among them to ad- 
minister to them and properly constitute the church. 
How can we explain the necessity of this special atten- 
tion if we suppose that the number of converts was a 
mere handful ? 

Again we learn that the inhabitants of Lydda and 
Saron, countries between Mt. Tabor and the Sea of 
Tiberius, who had heard the Gospel from the apostle 
Peter, and who had seen the dead raised to lite, in 
great crowds, embraced the faith. And the word 
which the Evangelist uses to designate the number of 
converts is very strong, for he says : "And all that 
dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and were con- 
verted to the Lord." (Acts. IX. 35) Mark that he 
says "all." Therefore, the two towns, en masse, came 
over to the faith. Later on, we read of a like accession 
in Joppa, where again, after hearing the preaching of 



6o THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

the Prince of the Apostles, confirmed by another mir- 
acle, the resuscitation of Tabitha, St Luke says : '*et 
crediderun multi in Domino." 

Now Joppa was a city of no small population : 
" many " is a comparative term. It is evident there- 
fore, that not a dozen or fifteen, — but a large number, 
perhaps hundreds, entered the fold on this occasion. 

The persecution which the Christians were obliged 
to endure at Jerusalem and in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, drove them into such distant regions as Phenice, 
Cyprus and Antioch. This last city was the metropolis 
of Syria and the seat of the Roman Proconsuls. Here 
again, it is recorded that a great number gave their 
names to the faith (Acts XI), so that for the work of 
organization of this great body, the apostles sent to 
them Barnabas, who in turn, brought "great multi- 
tudes to the Lord. " (Acts. XI, 24). 

The conversions multiplied so rapidly and the Church 
grew to such large proportions that St. Barnabas was 
obliged to call for more assistance, which he received 
in the person of St. Paul, himself a convert. Such 
was the zeal and continuous labors of these two mis- 
sionaries who during a whole year took up their resi- 
dence in that city, that the Church at Antioch became 
one of the most numerous and best known, and it was 
there that the disciples were first called Christians. 
At that time, Antioch contained at least two hundred 
thousand inhabitants : now will Renan please explain 
to us how a Church consisting of ten or a dozen people 
could have arisen to such extraordinary prominence 
among all the congregations of that. time. It is not ex- 
aggerating in the least to calculate that at least a 
tenth part of the citizens of Antioch became Christians. 
We can therefore estimate the number of the faithful 
in the time of St. Paul to be at least twenty thousand 
souls. 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 6 1 

Now if we lollow St. Paul and Barnabas to Iconium, 
the capital of Lycaonia, we see again the enormous 
strides the faith continues to make in its constant pro- 
gress. St. Luke designates the faithful as " copiosa 
multitude, " a very great multitude, both of the Jews 
and of the Greeks, and he adds, *' every day the num- 
ber increased. " 

The same story is told of Thessalonica, where the 
defection among the Jews from the old religion became 
so threateningly great that the obstinate Hebrews 
raised a persecution against them. Is it likely that 
they would have arisen against a handful of dissenters? 
Now in reality, the accusation made against the new 
converts which moved the magistrates to take measures 
against them, was that they had set the city in an up- 
roar. Now in a city like Thessalonica of a numerous 
population, it would require a good share of the in- 
habitants to be considered capable of disturbing the 
peace of the whole city. By this expression is intended 
to mean a religious revolution. It is hard to under- 
stand how Renan's interpretation can be made to agree 
with the plain words of the narration. 

In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts, we are again 
enlightened on the point of this marvellous increase in 
the number of the Christians. The proof of this won- 
derful growth in the city of Ephesus is of a nature so 
singular and striking as to leave no doubt as to its 
meaning. The preaching of St. Paul was followed 
with such fruit, that the temples of Diana, the goddess 
whose worship was especially cultivated there, were 
utterly deserted. And not only in Ephesus, but all 
over Asia the same results followed the labors of this 
apostle. The proof of this is manifest from most com- 
petent authority, and from a source which can scarcely 
be denied. Demetrius, a silversmith by trade, who 
gained a livelihood by manufacturing articles used in 



62 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

the worship of Diana, complained bitterly to his 
brethren that his trade had been ruined by the preach- 
ing of the apostles inasmuch as the people, not only ol 
Ephesus, but of all Asia, no longer venerated images 
made by hand, and so " not only this our craft " says 
he, " is in danger to be set at naught, but also the 
temple of great Diana shall be reputed for nothing: 
yea, and her majesty shall begin to be destroyed, whom 
all Asia and the world worshippeth. " 

Now, how can we suppose, considering the matter 
in all fairness and impartiality, that Demetrius could 
have made this plea, with any show of sense or hope 
of attention, unless it was an evident fact that in the 
city of Ephesus and the country around, an alarming 
number of conversions had taken place. 

Another singular fact may be adduced to prove how 
futile and false is the supposition of Renan and all his fol- 
lowing. It seems that magic or witchcraft was prac- 
ticed as a science among these people who seemed to 
have possessed whole libraries on this curious art. 
The apostles naturally condemned this practice and 
the books used by the magicians. Just at this time, 
some of their number had attempted by this art to per- 
form wonderful deeds, but with small success ; in fact 
the magicians themselves were visibly injured by their 
diabolical pretensions. Whereupon all these people 
who possessed the books brought them to the apostles 
to be burned ; that is they submitted to the teaching of 
St. Paul. We can calculate the number of these new 
converts from the value of the books which- they 
brought. This we are told amounted to fifty thousand 
pieces of silver, a sum equal to about twelve thousand 
dollars, which in that day was a very large sum of 
money, representing a great many people. 

Before St. Paul had preached in Ephesus, he had 
labored in Corinth, and founded in that city, a church 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 63 

numbering a very large congregation. St. Luke nar- 
rates that Crispus, a ruler of the synagogue, believed 
and all his family, and many of the Corinthians were 
baptized. Indeed, Christ Himself had said in His ap- 
parition to the apostle, "I have many people in this 
city" (vio). St Paul lived in Corinth a year and a half, 
which is of itself sufficient proof that the harvest of 
souls must have been very rich in that place. 

Now again, if Renan reads history aright, what does 
St. Paul mean writing to the Colossians (I. 6) when he 
assures them that "the Gospel as they had heard it, had 
been spread throughout the world" and in writing to 
the Romans (I. 8) that "their faith is spoken of in the 
whole world." He was not writing in hyperbole or 
exaggeration ; he was telling the simple truth. 

We know from the character of St Paul that he 
would never have gloried in a feeble conquest, such as 
would have been a few conversions here and there in 
the principal cities ; he would have accounted that 
very small fruit. When, therefore we hear of St. Paul 
boasting of the wide spread of the Gospel, we can eas- 
ily argue that already the numbers of the faithful had 
grown to enormous proportions. 

And here, I might notice the opinion of some au- 
thors, who, though they are obliged to concede that 
during the apostolic times a great multitude of people 
in various countries embraced the faith, nevertheless 
contend, that from the time of Nero to that of Trajan, 
the harvest of the preachers was very small. Now, 
from the beginning of the reign of Nero to the end of 
that of Trajan there was a period of sixty-two years ; 
and not to dwell too long upon this discussion, 1 will 
content myself with bringing forward the testimony of 
writers of that very time, who prove that this opinion 
is entirely unfounded. 

First of all, Cornelius Tacitus, in his fifteenth Book 



64 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

of Annals, recounting the infamous calumny cast upon 
the Christians by Nero, that they were the cause of the 
great incendiary of Rome at that time, but which no 
one believed, takes occasion to indicate something of 
the proportions which the Christian religion had at- 
tained ; and he writes that the Christians thrived in 
great numbers, not only in Judea but in Rome ; that 
of these a great crowd were put to death, not as guilty 
of incendiary, but as enemies of the human race. If, 
therefore, Tacitus says a great number of Christians 
suffered martyrdom, it is plain that in Rome at that 
time, the number of Christians must have been very 
considerable ; for certainly not all were denounced to 
the magistrates, but by far the greater part went into 
hiding to escape this punishment. 

Then, again, Pope St. Clement, who in his first letter 
to the Corinthians, written, according to the judgment 
of critics, a short time after the persecution of Domi- 
tian and before the death of that emperor, recalling to 
the memory of the faithful of Corinth the martyrdom 
of the apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, writes that in 
Rome was gathered a great multitude of the faithful. 
Therefore, by the testimony of Tacitus the pagan, and 
St. Clement the Christian, it is plain that even at the 
times of the heaviest persecutions, the Christian flock 
was extremely large. But if we consider the Church 
which flourished at this same time in the provinces and 
in the kingdoms subject to the Roman Empire, there 
can be no doubt that the number of the faithful reached 
very large dimensions. For Pliny the Younger, pro- 
praetor of Bythinia, wishing to consult the emperor 
as to how he should act towards the Christians, in- 
forms Trajan that the cities and towns of that province 
were filled with them ; so that there seemed a danger 
that the contagion of their susperstition, as he designates 
Christianity, would spread over the whole country ; 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 65 

and he complains that the temples were desolated and 
the sacred solemnities entirely forgotten. 

I do not wish to deny that by the fierceness of the 
persecution of Domitian, the Church suffered some 
loss. But neither can it be disputed that when the un- 
just and cruel decrees of that tyrant were abolished, 
the Christians took on new strength and vigor, spread- 
ing again even more rapidly in the East and the West. 
Of this we have ample testimony in the writings of 
Lucius Caecilius Lactantius, who writing of the per- 
secution of Domitian says : " On the recision of the 
acts and decrees of the tyrant, the Church was not 
only restored to its pristine state, but shone forth even 
more clearlyand vigorously, stretching out its ample 
arms to East and West until no corner of the earth 
was there so remote, unto which the religion of God 
had not penetrated. " 

Now, the persecution of Domitian lasted but a short 
time, and therefore brief was the suffering of the Church 
and the fear of those who had embraced it. Besides, 
if there had been many apostasies, it would be hard to 
explain the splendid condition of the Church so very 
soon after, in the time of Trajan ; and difficult also to 
understand what Tertullian says at the end of the 
second century or the beginning of the third : " If we 
should separate ourselves from you, your kingdom 
would scarcely stand, weakened by the loss of so many 
and such good citizens. " And so certain was he of 
what he wrote that he feared not to cry out in the 
very face of the pagans, that the Christians filled every 
province that belonged to the empire, the cities, the 
islands, the forts, the towns, the camps, the palace, the 
senate, the forum, — all places save the temples where 
they worshipped their lying divinities. 

Passing over every other testimony upon this point, 
let me conclude this part of my argument by affirming 



66 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

that either Tacitus, Pliny, Clement the Roman, and 
Tertullian were utterly deceived upon a point con- 
cerning which they had certainly the best possible in- 
formation, or Renan and all his followers are utterly 
unworthy of credence. For surely, if they refuse to 
believe Clement and Tertullian, accusing them of wish- 
ing to add glory to the Christian Church, they cer- 
tainly cannot accuse Tacitus and Pliny of the same 
motives. It seems to me, therefore, that nothing can 
be plainer from a historical standpoint than the fact 
that from the very beginning the number of converts 
won over to Christianity was marvelously large. 

So we may consider as established the first proposi- 
tion we set out to prove, namely, from its very begin- 
ning the Christian Church was no mere handful of 
people, but a vast organization, whose influence and 
power were promptly recognized by the rulers, both 
ecclesiastical and civil, of the Jewish and pagan world 
of that day. 

We now come to the second question: What was 
the character of these converts ? What was their po- 
sition, socially and intellectually ? Were they people 
of the lowest classes only and a multitude of credulous 
women, or were they rather gathered from every 
class ? 

The object of our enemies in asserting that the 
Church's following is made up, and from the first al- 
ways consisted, of people worthy of small considera- 
tion, is to throw a shadowupon the noble character of 
the Church's influence. Were this not historically 
false, we might pass it over in silence without delaying 
to refute it. For by the followers of the true faith, no- 
bility and greatness do not consist in mere pride of 
birth, ancestry, or wealth ; but in the virtue of the soul, 
in humility, in justice and charity. But for the sake of 
historical truth, if for no other reason, we must turn 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 6j 

the light of research upon the origins of the Church. 
In this light it will be easily visible that the doctrine 
of Christ while giving consolation and comfort to the 
lowly, nevertheless, in all times, has brought to its al- 
legiance, the rich, the powerful and the learned ; be- 
cause incomparably better and clearer than any other 
system of philosophy, it solved the great questions of 
life. And to begin with the time of Christ, Joseph of 
Arimathea, one of the early disciples of Christ, was a 
rich man and a member oi the Sanhedrim . Again, 
Nicodemus, also one of the early disciples, was a Jew- 
ish prince. Lazarus was a rich ruler who had great 
possessions. Joanna, one ol the women who minis- 
tered to Him, was wife of Chusa, Herod's steward. 
Zacheus too, was a nobleman and very rich. 

In the Acts, we are told that a great number of 
priests became subject to the faith, and we know that 
the priests, among the Jews, were of the most honor- 
able class of society. Among those who first received 
the faith from the apostles, was Cornelius, a noble cen- 
turion, who became converted with all his family and 
was baptized by St. Peter. One of the early converts 
of St. Paul was Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyp- 
rus. We are distinctly told that the chamberlain of 
the queen of the Ethiopians, who was baptized by 
Philip the disciple, was a man of great authority. 
That the new faith satisfied the minds of the most 
learned philosophers of the day, is plain from the fact 
of the conversion of Dionysius, who was a member of 
the Areopogus, the greatest school of learning ot its 
day. St. Luke, again writing of the converts made by 
the preaching of St. Paul, tells us that among the num- 
ber were many noble women. 

Now, to turn from the Sacred writings to authors of 
the period just later, how and by what arguments can 
our caluminators prove that among the immense num- 



68 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

ber of Christians spoken of by Tacitus, and described 
by Clement, were only people of the lowest classes ; 
since we know that in the times of Titus and Domitian 
among the Christians of that day, are to be numbered 
Flavius Clemens, a consul, and Flavia Domitilla, who 
was the niece of Domitian ; as well as Glabrio, who 
was a consul under Trajan. Moreover, we learn from 
the Apologists that many of those who dwelt in the im- 
perial palace professed the faith, some of them even of 
the blood of the Caesars ; which fact is attested by St. 
Paul in his letters to the Philippians from Rome : "All 
salute you, especially they that are of Caesar's house- 
hold." (Phil. iv. 22). 

Pliny, the Younger, writing to Trajan about the be- 
ginning of the second century, describing the inroads 
which Christianity was making in the province of 
Bithynia, assures the Emperor that the professors of 
the Christian religion were ol every age and condition 
and rank. In the Acts oi the Marytrs, we read that 
about the year 150, one of those who suffered for the 
faith under the emperor Antoninus, was St. Felicitas, 
who was designated as "illustris femina," by which 
appellation it was intended to indicate her noble birth. 
And again in the same place mention is made of a cer- 
tain Marius, a general of the army, put to death dur- 
ing the persecution of Adrian. Eusebius of Caesarea, 
in his fourth book of Ecclesiastical History, has a 
magnificent eulogy on Vitius Epagatus, a member of a 
noble senatorial family who suffered martyrdom under 
Lucius Virus. To conclude this list of testimony, 
which more than proves the absurdity of the calumny, 
we might finally cite the words of Tertullian who in 
his apology for the Christians, boldly declares "that 
they filled every office, and even were to be numbered 
among the Senate, and that they were no strangers in 
the Curia, the palace of the army." 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 69 



It is plain, therefore, that the Church was Catholic in 
every sense, from the very beginning. As Christ had 
died for all, the rich and the poor, the titled and the 
humble, so His voice and His inspiration reached to 
every class and position in life, and His apostles and 
disciples who were no respecters of persons, invited to 
His divine banquet plebian and patrician alike. And 
so was fulfilled the design of His commission, " Go 
preach the Gospel to every creature. " 

And now we come to the third part of the Conference 
which is to show that this great multitude of people of 
every class, were moved to place themselves under the 
banner of Christianity, not by human considerations or 
natural causes, but by supernatural motives, and that, 
therefore, the wonderful spread of the Gospel was 
the result of a special Providence and one of the 
greatest proofs of the Divine origin of the Church. 

To understand the difficulties that confronted the 
apostles and early preachers of the Word, in propogat- 
ing the faith, and in persuading men of the truth of 
the Christian religion, it is necessary to glance at the 
character of the superstitions which prevailed at that 
time, and at the general opinion in which the faith of 
Christ was held. The two religions prevailing were 
the Hebrew and the Pagan. The first was, as it were, 
the inheritance of a particular nation, which was to all 
intents and purposes completely isolated from the rest 
of the world, and which held all other nations in con- 
tempt. It nevertheless could boast and truly, that it 
was the true religion and one revealed by God ; 
whereas the religion of the gentiles was totally rotten 
and corrupt, a religion in which the human passions 
were allowed freest indulgence ; indeed, their very 
gods were the divinized patrons of crime. Both, from 
different causes, had the strongest possible hold upon 
the people which professed them. The Hebrew be- 



JO THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

cause they were sure of the truth which their religion 
preserved, and which had been confirmed again and 
again by sublime miracles and marvelous prophecies. 
The gentiles clung most tenaciously to their worship 
of idols because it laid no restraint upon their passions, 
it satisfied their desire of public pomp and ceremony ; 
and, besides, it was maintained by the state, and its 
chief patrons were the Roman emperors, the princes 
of the various countries, and therefore it was the 
fashionable religion. Now, what was the opinion which 
the followers of both these religions entertained of the 
religion of Christ ? St. Paul sums it all up when he 
writes to the Corinthians " that he preached Christ 
Crucified, a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the 
Gentiles. " Therefore to convert either Jews or 
Gentiles to the faith, it was necessary to prove that 
this same Christ, a blasphemy to one and a ridicule to 
the other, was God Himself, Wisdom and Virtue in- 
carnate, in Whose Name alone could be found eternal 
.salvation. 

To realize the full extent of the tremendous change 
of sentiment which was necessary to take place in the 
heart and mind of a Jew, before he could give his as- 
sent to the doctrines of Christianity, we need but recall 
the story of the life of Christ, as it was described in 
the first conference, to review the scenes, in which are 
plainly set forth the fierce tenacity, the obdurate pre- 
judice, insurmountable even by the sight of the great- 
est miracles with which the Hebrew nation clung to 
its ancient religion, and the dreadful opposition carried 
out with the most cruel heartlessness, with which it 
spurned every attempt to draw it from its stubborn 
allegiance to the traditional faith. 

If, on the other hand, we consider the obstacles which 
paganism placed in the path of Christianity, the diffi- 
culty seems even greater. For the Jews, at least, al- 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 7 1 

ready possessed a moral code, and a knowledge of the 
attributes of the true God. The substance of Christ- 
ianity was already foreshadowed in their laws and 
doctrines. But with the Gentiles there was absolutely 
no foundation to work upon, and no common field 
whereon to meet. In fact, Christianity was the very 
reverse of paganism. It had to start from the begin- 
ning, and even must demolish what existed before it 
could establish its first principles. It meant the utter 
destruction of its most cherished idols ; and with all 
their laxity of morals and corruption of ideals, their 
gods of bronze and marble were dear to them as the 
apple of the eye. Were not the imperial Caesars them- 
selves honored as gods ? And, therefore, to destroy the 
gods meant the destruction of the Caesars ; and that of 
course, was highest treason. 

Again, consider the prejudices of caste which the 
magnificent democrary of Christianity completely 
ignored. With the Roman, the slave was a possession, 
a chattel, a thing, whose very existence depended upon 
the clemency of his master. The new religion pro- 
claimed that God was no respecter of persons ; that in 
His eyes, the soul of the slave was quite as precious 
and of precisely equal value as the soul of the senator, 
the consul and the emperor. How could a Roman 
ever be brought to accept such a doctrine? Then, 
again, Christianity put a bridle upon the passions, it 
prohibited the sinful debaucheries that characterized 
their festivals and holidays ; in fact, it meant the com- 
plete subversion of every law and custom in which 
they had been brought up and educated, and which 
formed an essential part of the national life and their 
individual existence. Is it any wonder that St. Paul 
calls the faith " a scandal " to the Jews, and '* foolish- 
ness to the Gentiles ? " 

Could any human power prevail against such opposi- 



72 THE NATIONS, THE -BUILDING. 

tion? With the Jews, Christ was a false pretender, a 
lying imposter; with the Romans and the Gentile 
world, He was simply a common criminal, a vile male- 
factor, for as such His death upon the cross had stamped 
Him. 

To the words and preaching of Christ, the Jews cited 
in opposition, Moses and their prophets ; to the preten- 
sions of this crucified slave, the Romans held up to 
view the glorious attributes of Jove. If the common 
people were told that this Christ was God, they would 
naturally laugh and ask: "How is it, then, that he 
could not liberate Himself from the hands of the Jews ?" 
And as a reward for giving up all their cherished 
gratifications, and indulgences in the freedom of life, all 
that was offered to them by Chrtstianity was tribulation, 
persecution and the contempt of their fellow men. 

Now, besides, who were these people who preachad 
this strange doctrine ? They had neither learning nor 
fame nor weaith to give them standing or reputation 
with even the poorest and humblest of the people. 
When we cousider all this, the natural hesitation to 
give up a religion cherished by one's ancestors, and in 
which one has been reared, added to the apparent un- 
reasonableness and disadvantage of. the whole system 
of belief, what human reason or force could prevail to 
turn the veneration of Menes and Penates into the ad- 
oration of the Son of God ? And yet this came to 
pass. The rites of the Gentiles fell into disuse, the 
statues and images of their idols were broken into 
pieces ; the cross of Christ was planted in the public 
places ; the emperors themselves submitted to the yoke 
of Christ, and the whole world rang with the victory 
of Christianity. Christ finally conqured. Christ ruled 
even in Jerusalem and Rome itself. This is the 
greatest miracle which God has ever wrought. It is 
the fact which never can be explained, unless it be at 



THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 7$ 

once admitted that not for human motives or by hu- 
man causes or by human influence, but by the special 
providence of God this wonderful change was accom- 
plished. 

There were, indeed, some circumstances which, 
though they were utterly unavailable to explain the 
wonderful propagation of Christianity, nevertheless 
favored and assisted its growth once established. Thus, 
for instance, the uniting of nearly all the world under 
the single dominion ol the Roman Empire, thus estab- 
lishing facility of intercourse and communication be- 
tween all the provinces and the great capital ;. the al- 
most universal use of the Greek language, establishing 
thus a common means of disseminating ideas, and the 
active trade which at that time was carried on be- 
tween the various nations. But is it not plain in the 
light of after events, that all these circumstances were 
designs of that great Providence which wished to lead 
back to the knowledge of the truth, and bind together 
in the bonds of brotherhood, the scattered children of 
men ? 

Suppose the better to realize the extent of this won- 
derful diffusion of the truth, we briefly trace its march 
through the various countries where it successively 
set up its throne. First, it becomes visible in Pales- 
tine and Syria ; thence it spreads to Mesopotamia, to 
Asia Minor, to Egypt. Onward still farther to the 
south, it marches in triumph to Nubia and Ethiopia, 
extending even into Arabia. Westward we follow its 
course through Greece and Italy, till it reaches the 
very center of Paganism, Rome. 

From Rome, its champions carry the banner of the 
cross into Gaul, invading the strongholds of infidelity 
at Aries, Limoges, at Marseilles and Aix. Crossing 
the snowy heights of the Pyrennes, it descends into 
the confines of Spain, to Sarogossa and Terracogna ; 



74 THE NATIONS, THE BUILDING. 

then across the seas into the islands of the oceans 
thought then to be the ends of the world. To York, 
and London, and Lincoln, the new faith is borne by 
these heralds of the cross. 

The impassable Alps proved no barrier to its prog- 
ress, for next we see in Germany along the Rhine, the 
people gathered to hear the tidings of peace. At Col- 
ogne, at Mayence and Strasburg, the northern barbar- 
ians were led willing captives to Christ. Nor did the 
arid plains, nor burning deserts of the East prove 
more impassable than the Alps, the Pyrennes and the 
sea. To the farthest East, to Assyria, to Persia and 
distant Parthia and onward still to India, the voice of 
God was carried, was heard and obeyed, so that it 
might be truly said : "In omnem terram exivit sonus 
eorum et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum ;" for at that 
time, these were the limits of the known world. 

So that in three short centuries, with every human 
agency against them, with the threats of rulers sound- 
ing in their ears, and the sword of princes gleaming 
before their eyes, undaunted, undismayed, the first fol- 
lowers of Christ stood before frowning strangers and 
sneering philosophers, and in spite of every obstacle 
won the whole world back from blackest night of su- 
perstition and idolatry, to the bright light of Christian 
truth. 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 



The story of the persecutions of the Church of Christ 
is a record so singular and extraordinary that it may 
be called unique in the history of the human race : and 
indeed, might seem incredible were it not that witnesses 
and monuments above any possible exception, render 
it certain beyond any doubt. For who would believe 
that emperors, rulers, governors, magistrates and men 
in general of all classes, would unrelently harass, combat 
and punish a religion whose sole object and purpose is 
to teach justice and holiness here, in this life, and point 
to peace and happiness in the life to come : a religion 
which led the world back again to the knowledge of 
truth, and taught men, rulers and ruled, their duties 
toward God, their neighbor and themselves, duties 
which rightly fulfilled could have but one effect, the 
diffusion through all the world of calmest peace, mak- 
ing earth an image of the kingdom of Heaven. 

Yet, " Fremuerunt gentes : adstiterunt reges terrae, et 
principes convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum, et 
adversus Christum ejus." If we consider only the Roman 
emperors, from Tiberius, under whom Christ completed 
His mission, and died upon the cross for our salvation, 
down to Constantine the Great, we may enumerate 



76 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

forty-seven imperial Caesars. Of these, not all indeed 
were like Nero, monsters of cruelty and inhumanity ; 
many in fact, distinguished themselves by military 
valor and wise government, caring deeply for the wel- 
fare ot their people and the glory of their kingdom, 
and yet even among these, were many who enacted 
laws and drew the imperial sword, fierce and sharp 
against the Christians, flooding the Roman empire 
with the blood of the innocent. And mark, we pass 
over now, the persecutions raised by the Jews and by 
the nations of the provinces of imperial Rome. For, 
were we to take an account of these also, we might 
well assert that from the birth of the Church of Christ, 
down through three long weary heartless centuries, 
Christianity had no peace, or enjoyed it at such brief 
intervals, that we may well say that one storm had 
scarcely abated till one could hear in the distance the 
rumbling and murmur of another that soon beat with 
increased fury. 

The argument which Christians draw from the fierce- 
ness of the persecutions, the invincible constancy of 
the martyrs, and the triumph of the Church in spite of 
universal opposition, is one of the strongest, in de- 
monstrating the divinity of its origin. This explains 
why the enemies of the Church endeavor to extenuate 
the fierceness of the persecutions and diminish the 
number of the martyrs. Henry Dodwell, in his 
" Quaestiones Cyprianicae, " published in 1684, seeks to 
prove that the number of those who shed their blood 
as confessors and martyrs of the faith, is greatly ex- 
aggerated ; while in our days, Renan among others, to 
the same end, attempts to disprove the indubitable in- 
humanity of the Church's earliest foes. But the most 
learned students of that period allow neither Dodwell 
nor Renan room for credence. Among these, worthy 
of special praise, are Ruinart and Mamachio. But the 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. J? 

glory of refuting beyond all response Dodwell and 
Renan was reserved to the learned and conscientious 
French student Paul Allard, who, in his five volumes 
of the " History of the Persecutions of the First Two 
Centuries, " based upon the most trustworthy and au- 
thentic documents of archaeology, with wonderful 
erudition and precision of argument, closes forever 
the mouths of the Church's enemies on this subject. 

Upon the subject of to-day's conference, we must 
consider many points, for under this subject I must 
look into the causes, the occasions, the pretexts of the 
persecutions, their extent, duration, ferocity and num- 
ber. You are not unaware that the story of the perse- 
cutions even summarily told, would fill volumes, and 
therefore, I need hardly state that in this lecture I 
shall be compelled to merely indicate what history 
reveals. Let us first consider the causes which have 
been assigned for the early trials ot the Church. As 
there was no real cause for opposition, tyranny and 
hunting down of an organization, so purely beneficent 
in design and pacific in measures as Christianity, many 
causes and reasons were invented. And these we may 
gather from the contumelious names by which the 
Christians were designated. They were called factions, 
enemies of the emperor, dangerous to the state, haters 
of the human race, sacrilegious, criminals, irreligious 
and atheists. From these calumnious appellations, we 
may gather the causes which roused the early pagans 
against our fathers in the faith. They were considered 
as the enemies of the religion of the empire and its 
divinities, and therefore, of the state itself. Moreover, 
they were accused of the most infamous crimes. Were 
the book "De Officio Proconsulis" still extant, in which 
the famous advocate Domitius, in the time of Alexander 
Severus (222-235) nas gathered all the edicts of the 
emperors against the Christians, we should have at 



?S THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

hand the true causes which they alleged to have moved 
them in the suppression of Christianity ; but unfortu- 
nately, this book has perished and we remain still un- 
certain as to the exact reasons, 

Nevertheless, the great historian Eusebius, has con- 
served some edicts, published by the later emperors, 
from which we may argue the true causes assigned by 
their predecessors as inspiring them to act with such 
relentless hatred and persistent tyranny. In that of 
Maximianus, promulgated in 311, we read that his dis- 
trust and fear, and consequently his persecution of the 
Christians of his time, arose from the fact that they 
despised the rights and institutions of the empire, that 
they dared to make laws for their own governance, in- 
dependent of the state, and held aloof from the public 
rites. The emperor Maximinus, in his letter dated 
the year 312, affirms that the emperors Diocletian and 
Maximian, were impelled to persecute the Christians, 
because nearly all the men abandoning the worship of 
the idols embraced the faith of Christ. "Diocletianus 
et Maximianus cum cunctos fere homines relicto De- 
orum immortalium cultus, ad Christianorum sectam se 
applecuisse cernerant." 

It is plain therefore from this edict, that the cause 
assigned by these emperors, for their animosity against 
their Christian subjects, was their detestation of idola- 
try. But from the calumnies hurled against them by 
the people, as well as from the jests and caricatures of 
which they were the butt, we may well argue that in 
the imperial edicts, other causes and motives were as- 
signed for their harsh and cruel treatment. Enmity 
towards the human race and criminal superstition and 
witchcraft, which were all crimes against the state, 
were among these ; and both Tacitus and Suetonius in- 
tend to indicate just these accusations when he first 
writes that the Christians in the persecutions under 



THE STORM. 79 



Nero were convicted "de odio humani generis," and 
the other, accuses them "superstitionis novae et 
malficae." 

But whatever the causes alleged for the persecu- 
tions enacted against the Christians, and so bitterly 
carried out, they were all unfounded, unjust and un- 
reasonable. The real causes were the foolish super- 
stition of the pagans themselves, the private jealousies 
and hatred of the common people towards their 
Christian neighbors, the fear of the priests of loosing 
their clientele ; and at times, the weakness of the em- 
perors to yield to the whims of the people, at times, 
their desire to turn away the torrent of distrust and 
dislike which the people bore towards themselves. 

We can best understand the opposition, the hatred, 
and consequently the punishment urged against the 
followers of the cross, if we place ourselves for a mo- 
ment, back into the times of which we write, and among 
the people who arrayed themselves against the new 
faith. The golden age of Augustus had not all passed 
away ; poetry, eloquence and the fine arts still tickled 
the ear and dazzled the eye. Luxury, following in the 
wake of wealth and the enormous riches which the 
Romans of that day revelled in, it had begun its effects 
upon its devotees. Pleasure and enjoyment were the 
only occupations of the hour, even the temples were 
but theatres where magnificent pomp and glittering 
ceremonial satisfied the craving of the Roman heart 
for show and pageantry. Bacchus and Venus re- 
ceived fullest adoration from all classes, the noble 
Patrician, the prosperous merchant, the freedman and 
the slave. Their religious festivals were nothing 
more than origies, where the most absolute license 
was permitted, and decency and the last vestiges of 
modesty were thrown to the winds under the veil of 
worship to the gods. The feast day of the emperor 



SO THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

was a time when voluptuousness, drunkenness, dis- 
order were the best proofs of loyalty to the imperial 
majesty. The whole day was spent at the bath, which 
served as a place of most frightful sensual recreation, 
and what time could be spared from this debauchery 
was filled up by attendance at the cireus, where by a 
singular transformation, cruelty and the most out- 
rageous heartlessness succeeded to the utmost effem- 
inancy and luxuriance. For there the same eyes that 
turned their languishing gaze upon the most finished 
works of art, gloated upon the most fierce combat 
of the gladiators and the most revolting scenes 
of bloodshed. The gravity and power of the 
senate had vanished, the honest, vigorous manli- 
ness that had made Rome what it was, was no 
longnr visible. The Palatine gleamed all night 
in the effulgence of banquet halls, filled with 
the gay and dissolute court. Seriousness, moral law, 
justice, moderation were gone forever. And now, 
behold in the midst of this effeminate pleasure-loving, 
licentious throng, a little group, who by the strong 
contrast of their dress, their bearing, their very coun- 
tenance, appeared distinct and different from all their 
surroundings. They took no part in the long, gorge- 
ous processions that filed under the triumphal arches, 
along the gayly decorated streets, up to the marble 
temples, where the fragrant incense was burned, and 
the dazzling scene of crowds of vestals and gold-robed 
priests stood around the altar, and to softest music 
from a thousand pipes, sang the praises of their false 
divinities. 

They shrink into the byways and hurry on to out of 
the way temples, to join still others already assembled 
at the simplicity of ceremonial that distinguished this 
strange religion. Issuing from these quiet places, they 
meet the rollicking and reckless crowd that, half drunk 



THE STORM. 8 1 



from their libations, and wreathed with garlands torn 
from their shrines, rent the air with lascivious jest and 
indecent mirth and song. 

To the invitations to join their baccanalian dances, 
where men and women half nude, gave free vent to 
their lawless passions, these worshippers of Christ 
turned their heads in unfeigned disgust and disap- 
proval. Even in the emperors' feasts, they still held 
themselves from the mad gatherings and their wild ex- 
cesses. At the baths they were never seen, and they 
never entered the portals of the great amphitheatre to 
witness the great gladiatorial feats and the slaughter 
of the slaves. And so, forsooth, judged from their 
absence from the feasts of both gods and emperor, 
they were at once stamped as atheists and traitors. 
And above the music of the dance, the coarse song of 
the orgies and the vivats that rose up to the imperial 
palace, ascended the cry which spread from lip to lip, 
bringing terror to the souls of the early faithful, " To 
the lions with the Christians, the Christians to the 
lions. " 

This is the picture that Tertullian hands down to us 
in describing the causes which prompted the pagans of 
his day to single out as enemies of the human race, de- 
spisers of the gods, and rebellious citizens, the men and 
women who, faithful to the teachings of the true faith, 
refused to participate in these scenes of crime and 
licentiousness. Reproached for their singular indiffer- 
ence to the common pastimes and public holidays, and 
absence from the temples, he thus responds : " The 
theatre is the scene of impure love. What Christian 
mother could gaze upon these views of immodesty un- 
shocked ; what Christian but would blush at the com- 
pany he finds there. " Again he answers, " Truly 
Christians are savages aud enemies of the state, be- 
cause they do not assist at your festivities, but celebrate 



82 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

with a joy wholly interior, and not with debauchery, 
your emperor's feast days. How truly deserving- of 
death we are lor offering up prayers for the emperor 
without ceasing to be chaste and modest. " Here we 
have indicated plainly the first reasons which turned 
towards the Christians the hatred and suspicion of 
their pagan neighbors. Once made the mark of pagan 
hatred, on account of this singular abstention from the 
public festivities, the imagination soon helped to fill out 
other and more explicit accusations. Their meetings in 
private, to which none but the initiated were admitted, 
soon made them appear as political conspirators and 
social revolutionists. Some renegades, maliciously 
misinterpreting the Sacrifice of the Mass and the 
Sacrament of the Eucharistic Feast, noised it abroad 
that these secret observances were the scenes of human 
sacrifice in which the Christians murdered an innocent 
babe, and then consummated the horrible crime by 
drinking its blood. Moreover, the frequent miracles 
wrought by the Christians were ascribed to them as 
the results of witchcraft and necromancy. So that at 
the very beginning of the reign of Nero, the Roman 
people had learned to consider them as a dangerous as- 
sociation which plotted in secret places and in the 
darkness of the night against the welfare of the govern- 
ment and the life of the emperor. 

As the new religion continued to grow with marvel- 
ous rapidity, extending from Rome throughout all 
the provinces of the empire, so that finally the temples 
themselves were deserted, the priests of paganism were 
roused to a sense of their waning influence ; and so to 
the suspicion was soon added the jealousy of priests. 
Only a match was needed to turn all this smouldering 
mass of antipathy into a fearful conflagration. That 
match was the burning of Rome. 

The early part of Nero's reign was distinguished by 



THE STORM. 83 



justice and prosperity, but this was due rather to the 
wisdom and honesty of Seneca and Burrhus, to whom 
at that time was intrusted the management of affairs. 
But soon matters changed, and the Roman people 
became fully conscious of the real character of the 
imperial profligate. Crime after crime had succeeded 
in turning towards himself the contempt of the Roman 
people. The climax of his mad excesses was reached 
in the setting fire to the city. This would have been 
also the sudden close of his reign were it not for the 
ingenious subtlety with which he diverted from him- 
self the accusations which his subjects had arrayed 
against him, who, tired of the infamous actions of this 
monster, at last determined to rid themselves of a ruler 
who showed absolute disregard for his subjects. 

His wife was a Jewess, and among his most in- 
fluential advisers were to be reckoned many rich Jews. 
These courtiers advised him to avert suspicion from 
himself by laying the charge of incendiarism at the 
door of the Christians. Nobody believed the calumny, 
not even the Romans themselves, as Tacitus plainly 
writes, and the Christians, hurried before the magis- 
trates, interrogated and examined juridically, proved 
beyond doubt, that they were utterly innocent, but 
they were nevertheless convicted, not of the burning 
of the city it is true, but forsooth, of hatred to the 
.human race. This pretext sufficed to turn the minds 
of the angry Romans from the emperor himself, and so, 
instead of the cry " Bread and the show, " arose the 
shout, " The Christians to the beasts. " 

And so the first legal persecution dates its origin 
from the greatest monster of inhumanity and crime 
that ever sat upon a throne ; the worthy ancestor of 
all who, in times succeeding up to this, our day, have 
molested the church of God. Well may we repeat 
with Tertullian: "We glory in a persecution inaug- 



84 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

urated by such a tyrant." This persecution may be 
taken as a type oi all those that followed up to the 
peace of Contantine. The causes alleged were the 
same, the accusations against the Christians the same, 
the manner of torment and character of the punish- 
ments inflicted were alike. 

Whether this persecution under Nero was confined 
to Rome, or extended to the provinces cannot be de- 
termined with perfect historical accuracy, though Sul- 
picius , Severus and Orosius inform us that it raged 
throughout the whole empire. Tacitus is our author- 
ity for affirming that during this persecution, an 
enormous multitude (multitudo ingens) of Christians 
suffered death. 

As to the characters of these punishments allotted to 
the victims of this unjust malice, the mere mention of 
them makes us shudder, and on reading the authentic 
accounts given us of these awful scenes of cruelty, we 
wonder how men with any vestige of feeling left in 
them could measure out such brutal tortures lor even 
beasts. To enumerate a few, we have only to repeat a 
description left us by Tacitus. Some were nailed to 
the cross, some were sewn up in the skins of wild 
beasts and the dogs of the streets set upon them, and 
most horrible of all, others covered with pitch and tar 
were bound to stakes in the arena and set on fire to il- 
luminate the circus at night, while Nero himself, 
dressed as a chariotee, drove among these human 
torches. 

Among those first to give their lives for the faith in 
this reign of terror, were St Peter, the Prince of the 
Apostles, and St. Paul, his co-laborer in Rome. The 
conversion by St. Peter, of one of the concubines of 
Nero, brought upon him the wrath of the tyrant. He 
was arrested and thrown into the dungeon of the 
Mamertine Prison, whence he was led forth to cruci- 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 85 

fixion in the very gardens of Nero, on the Vatican, on 
June 7, of the year 67. About the same time St. Paul 
met his glorious death by decapitation near the Fulvian 
waters in a place now called the Three Fountains, still 
venerated at the present day. It was a common form 
of death to which the Christians were sentenced, to be 
condemed to wild beasts in the arena. Those con- 
demned to this death were called "bestiarii." At first, 
they were stripped naked and flogged by the Vena- 
tores or hunters, who stood all around the arena 
brandishing great whips in their hands. Before these 
flagellators, the marytrs were driven, compelled to run 
through this frightful gauntlet till the blood streamed 
from their bodies. They were then dressed in the 
garments of the priests of Saturn, and so like human 
sacrifices to this cruel god, they were led forth to meet 
the lions and death. 

In reading the accounts of these persecutions, one 
cannot fail to recognize that the evil spirit himself had 
entered into the minds of the persecutors, so that no 
means were left untried to make the Christians waver 
in the faith and renounce Christ. Let me repeat here 
a few of the tortures, of which we have authentic ac- 
counts in the best accredited writers of that time. It 
is not a pleasant scene to review, but as a mere matter 
of history, confirming the proposition we have set out 
to prove, we cannot pass it by in silence. One of these 
refinements of cruelty, according to Ruinart, was the 
extraction of the longue and all the teeth. Some were 
cut open and filled with grain and thrown to the swine 
to be devoured ; some were dragged upon a pavement 
of sharp stones; some were buried ali\e, as we learn 
from St. Gregory of Tours ; some, like St. Lawrence, 
were broiled alive. Sometimes the martyrs were 
burned "according to law," that is, as Lactantius ob- 
serves, condemned to die by slow fire ; the ashes were 



86 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

ground to dust and thrown into the river or to the 
winds. 

Horrible as is the mere mention of such a death as 
these here narrated, they are but a few specimens of 
the almost endless varieties of cruelties which the con- 
fessors of the faith were subjected to. It is enough 
for our purpose to indicate these. 

Now, if we go down through the long weary period 
of three hundred years, the history of the Church at 
this period seems, with but a few brief intervals, sim- 
ply a catalogue of these heartrending scenes. Surely, 
this was for the infant Church a very baptism of blood ; 
and if in later times Christianity rose to its true posi- 
tion as a powerful, influential and magnificent organiza- 
tion, reflecting in a measure, the glory of the Church 
triumphant, it can always look back to these three 
first centuries as the proof of its indefectibility and the 
price of its future prosperity. 

To Nero succeeded Vespasian and Titus. During 
their reigns the Church enjoyed a short respite ; then 
came Domitian, whom Juvenal calls another Nero. 
Clement the Roman, who lived at this very time, was 
an eye-witness of many a bloody scene enacted by the 
cruelty of this tyrant. In his letter to the Corinthians, 
he speaks of the awful multitudes that suffered the 
most terrible tortures during these years of trial. It is 
significant of the high position, socially and politically, 
which distinguished many members of the Church of 
this time, that among those whom Domitian put to 
death, were Flavius Clemens, the consul, and Flavia 
Domitilla, his own niece. We have this on the author- 
ity of Dion Cassius, of Eusebius, and Brusius, a pagan 
author of the same period. The most distinguished 
martyr of this time was St. John the Evangelist, who 
was condemned to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling 
oil before the Lateran gate. It has been attempted to 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 87 



impugn the veracity of this statement, but on the 
authority of St. Jerome, and Eusebius, the most learn- 
ed students and critics of history universally admit it. 
It is more than likely that towards the end of his reign, 
perhaps weary of the fight which proved utterly use- 
less against Christianity, Domitian, by private orders, 
mitigated the cruelties of his early reign, for Tertullian 
assures us that he allowed many of those whom he 
had banished for the faith to return to their homes. 

Nerva succeeded Domitian, and his policy was an 
entirely peaceful one, but he reigned only two years, 
when of a sudden, the fire blazed out afresh, when 
Trajan renewed the severest edicts of Nero and Dom- 
itian. It is a singular fact that men otherwise noted 
for their clemency and wisdom, when it is a question 
of the Church become most narrow, ignorant and 
heartless. This was the case with Trajan. By the 
pagan authors of his time, he is described as one of 
the very best of the Roman emperors ; in fact the 
senate conferred upon him the title optimus. Yet 
from the Acts of the Martyrs, and the letters of St. 
Ignatius, we learn that though he was kind and just to 
the rest of his subjects, he was implacable in his hatred 
of the Christians. It seems that he had a supertitious 
dread that unless he propitiated the gods by ridding 
his kingdom of these atheists, that the pagan divinities 
would wreak their vengeance upon his empire and 
himself. From the letters of Pliny the Younger, who 
was the governor of Bithynia, we may gather the 
harshness of the edicts published by command of the 
emperor. 

It was at the suggestion of this same Pliny that 
Trajan reduced his measures to a better regulated 
mode of proceeding. He forbade the detecting and 
spying out of the Christians, but made a regular legal 
procedure necessary, so that for a while, the command 



SS THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 



of the emperor had the effect of suppressing the too 
active inquisition of the pagans. Nevertheless, he did 
not withdraw any of the laws enacted against them, 
but left them in full force ; so that a Christian once ac- 
cused and refusing to abjure the faith, was immediately 
punished ; for the words of his rescript read : "Si 
deferantur et arguantur puniendi sunt." Eusebius com- 
menting upon this strong decree says, that though it 
for awhile dampened the too ardent zeal of their per- 
secutors, nevertheless the jealousies and hatred of the 
pagan people continued a sufficient excuse for denun- 
ciation and consequent punishment of the Christians. 
The duration ol this persecution was from the year 
107 to the year 117, making thus a period of ten bitter 
years of trial for the church. 

One after another, emperor succeeded emperor, 
nearly all of whom, with the exception of Alexander 
Severus, who preserved the statue of Christ among 
his household gods, and Philip the Arab, who was con- 
sidered to be a Christian himself, repeated over and 
over again the same story of hostilities. Besides the 
three persecutions we have already named, passing 
over the times, when owing to private broils and for- 
eign wars, our forefathers were left for a time unmol- 
ested, we may with St. Augustine, enumerate seven 
others, commonly called, on account of their ferocity 
and extent, general persecutions. These were the 
forth under Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 116 to 
180: the fifth under Septimius Severus (193-21 1); the 
sixth, under Maximian the Thracian (235-238); the 
seventh, under Decius (249-251); the eighth, under 
Valerian (253-260); the ninth, under Aurelian (270-^75 ; 
the tenth, under Diocletian (284-305). 

Of these, we may only consider the two most im- 
portant on account of their duration and bitterness, 
namely that of Marcus Aurelius, at the end of the 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 89 

second century, and Diocletian at the end ol the third 
century. This M. Aurelius, though a stoic philosopher, 
considered the Christians as stubborn and enemies of 
the state. Melitus, bishop of Sardis, in his apology 
which he presented to Marcus Aurelius, did not fear 
to state openly that the sufferings which his people 
were compelled to endure under his very eyes, were 
monstrous and barbarous in the extreme ; that inform- 
ers excited by the new decrees promulgated through- 
out Asia, ceased not day and night to insult his people 
and despoil them of their goods. Eusebius, moreover, 
informs us that this tyrant gave orders to the prefect of 
Gaul to put to death every Christian who remained 
constant in the profession of his faith. Athanagorus 
besought him to show a little sympathy lor these suf- 
fering people, and not to allow them to be treated like 
mere cattle, but the appeal was without avail. 

What the apologists and bishops sought from the 
emperor in vain was finally brought about by the in- 
terposition of Providence itself. The prayers of his 
subjects he heeded not, but he was compelled to at 
least a temporary relaxation of his cruelties by a 
most wonderful miracle. When the emperor was 
forming his troops, thus writes Eusebius, in order of 
battle against the Germans and Sarmatians, he was re- 
duced to extremities by a failure of water. It was 
in the heat of summer and the soldiers were dying 
of thirst. The enemy was before them ready to com- 
mence the attack, but the fainting army had no 
strength to lift their arms against them. The em- 
peror was dismayed and saw sure defeat staring him 
in the face. At this awful juncture, the very 
Christians whom he had so terribly persecuted came 
to his assistance. The legion called Melitine, com- 
posed of Christian soldiers, knelt down upon the 
ground, and to the surprise of the emperor and the 



90 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

army, besought God to show His power. Wonder 
followed surprise, and fear followed upon wonder ; for 
behold, a fierce storm suddenly arose in a clear sky. 
The lightening gleamed above the enemy, and terrible 
thunder bolts, leaping from the clouds carried death 
and destuction into their ranks and they fled in terror, 
while upon the army of the Romans a gentle rain de- 
scended, and the perishing soldiers, catching the 
grateful drops in their helmets, were soon refreshed 
and saved from a terrible overthrow. This leigon 
was ever afterwards known as the Thundering Legion. 
Tertullian tells us that in a formal document, the em- 
peror acknowledged this miracle as obtained by the 
prayers of the Christians, and Eusebius narrates that 
in consequence of this favor, Aurelius issued an edict 
by which those accused of Christianity should be par- 
doned, and their informers should undergo the penalty 
instead. A memorial of this wonderful event is sculp- 
tured on the celebrated Antonine column at Rome 
where is represented a figure of Jupiter Pluvius scat- 
tering lightning and rain upon the enemy, and their 
horses lying prostrate, while the Romans, sword in 
hand, are rushing upon them. This event took place 
in the year 174. It is wonderful how soon even so 
marvellous an interposition of God may be forgotten. 
Three years after, the emperor seemed to have remem- 
bered nothing of it, and from that time until the end 
of his reign there was no cessation of constant perse- 
cution. 

Among the most illustrious martyrs put to death 
during his reign, were Ptolemy, Lucius, Justin, the 
Apologist, St. Cecilia, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and 
Bothinus, bishop of Lyons. 

Higher and higher rose the awful tide of hatred to 
the church of Christ, until the Christians began to be- 
lieve that the days of anti-Christ had come at last. 



THE STORM. 91 



Hundreds upon hundreds were dragged from the 
quiet of home, from their hiding places, from their oc- 
cupations in the open day and the silence ol the night, 
hurried before tribunals, accused by slanderous wit- 
nesses, the*n condemned to dark prisons and loathsome 
cells to wait for that release which came only through 
the gate of death. 

We come, finally, to view briefly, the last and most 
terrible of all the storms that raged against the Church 
of God. Under the Emperors Galerius and Aurelian 
and their three immediate successors, the Church en- 
joyed a long season of respite, so that when Diocletian 
came to the throne, the Christians were no longer con- 
sidered enemies ot the state and were allowed to prac- 
tice their worship openly and with perfect freedom. 
Many of them had attained to the highest and most in- 
fluential positions in the empire. Under these new con- 
ditions, the Church increased and flourished with mar- 
vellous prosperity. Magnificent churches were erected 
rivalling in splendor of architecture the very temples 
of the pagans. All day long, great throngs passed in 
and out under their beautiful portals, and on Sundays 
and feast days, large as they were, they were not ca- 
pacious enough to hold the enormous concourse of the 
faithful that crowded to participate in the sacred so- 
lemnities. As many of their number were exceedingly 
rich and prosperous, the society of the faithful grew 
more and more wealthy, and though as yet, the pagan 
religion still flourished, in reality it might be said that 
Christianity drew the greatest number to its following. 
The religion of Christ was everywhere respected, and 
the Christian rites were celebrated with sumptuous 
magnificence. Bishops were exceedingly beloved on 
all sides, and an enormous number of the noblest and 
gentlest blood now professed the faith of Christ. 
God's blessing was visibly upon his Church: He had 



92 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

delivered them out of the hands of their enemies and 
showered prosperity upon them. 

One would surely imagine that after all the terrible 
tortures and trials which they and their ancestors had 
undergone for the faith that, now, they would remem- 
ber what it had cost them, and prove grateful for the 
peace which they at last enjoyed. But according to 
Eusebius, God's blessings were soon forgotten, and in- 
stead of growing more strong and loyal in the taith, 
they gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the good 
things of life and became lukewarm in the matters of 
religion. And so the same men who in adversity were 
signalized by virtue and courage in the Church's de- 
fence, became in prosperity both sluggards and 
cowards. They began to envy one another : to sow 
discord among themselves, and thus breaking the bonds 
of Christian peace. Then the chastisements of God 
were poured forth. 

In the beginning of his reign, Diocletian was far 
from unfavorable to the Christians. Frequently urged 
to oppose their 'increasing force and influence, each 
time he refused, until finally at the urgent solicitation 
of Galerius, he yielded, and seeing dissension among 
their own ranks, he determined upon their extermina- 
tion, to establish the state upon a firmer basis and en- 
dow it with additional splendor. 

The immediate course which led Diocle tian to enter 
upon a cruel policy is handed down by Lactantius 
(chap. 10) De Mortibus Progenitorum. The emperor, 
anxious to know what events the future held in store 
for him, and to learn what secret evils thre atened the 
empire, gathered around him his pagan priests. Ac- 
cording to the usual custom, they set about to consult 
the omens in the palpitating entrails of birds. It seems 
that some Christians, probably officers of the palace, 
were present at this scene. One of them made the 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 93 

sign of the cross and the pagan priests confessed them- 
selves unable to give an answer to the emperor's 
curiosity. Immediately a discussion arose as to why 
there was no response to the omens. It was soon re- 
vealed that the Christians by some sign had cast a 
spell upon the operations, and at once, the emperor, 
roused to an awful fury, gave orders that the edicts 
asrainst the faithful should be executed. 

In the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, on 
the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, Easter day, 
the occasion of happiest spiritual joy, the edicts of 
persecution were promulgated. By these it was de- 
creed that all the churches of the Christians should be 
levelled to the ground, the sacred books delivered to 
the flames, the noble personages who professed the 
Christian faith disgraced publicly, and the people who 
dared to assemble for Christian worship to be deprived 
of liberty. And as it this did not suffice, later on new 
edicts were decreed, by which the bishops and pre- 
fects of the churches were to be cast into prison, and 
by every torment constrained to offer sacrifice to the 
gods. Imagine the fear that now filled Christian com- 
munities in all parts of the world ! "From the East to 
the West," writes Lactantius,"could be heard the savage 
roars of the wild beasts that ruled the empire, and had 
I a hundred tongues speaking a hundred languages, 
with a voice strong as steel, I could not begin to re- 
late the cruelties which were enacted and the punish- 
ments with which we were afflicted." 

The first to be seized and put to death were those 
who held positions in the imperial palace : after them 
the bishops, priests and sacred ministers were dragged 
to execution. No proof or pretext of public fault or 
civil crime was thought necessary ; even the appear- 
ance of the customary forms of justice was omitted. 
Men of every age and condition, after being first de* 



94 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

livered to the mob and by them beaten almost to in- 
sensibility, were then taken by the executioners and 
thrown into the flames. The servants and domestics 
and all of humble station, were bound hand and foot, 
weighted with stones about the neck, and thrown into 
the sea. The prisons groaned with their Christian oc- 
cupants, and so full were they of these confessors of 
the faith that there was no room lelt for the common 
criminals. Diocletian himself often took delight in 
being present in person at the martyrdom of these 
poor victims in the public places. The only ones to 
whom he showed any mercy were the apostates. The 
magistrates seemed to vie with one another in gaining 
the greatest number of these from among the body of 
the Christians. Knowing the pleasure it gave to the 
emperor to succeed in this work, they took every pos- 
sible means to swell the number of apostates which 
they recorded and sent to Diocletian. Unfortunately 
there were not lacking some, who yielding to the 
awful terrors before them, sacrificed to the gods. But 
oftentimes, the magistrates enrolled many upon their 
books as perverts, who were in reality faithful. For 
example, some constant for their professions to the 
true faith were thrown into the flames and when half 
dead again rescued by the inquisitors. On being asked 
whether they would offer incense to the gods, being 
unconscious and unable to speak, their silence was 
taken as an indication of consent: and so many, through 
this deceit, were pretended to have given up the faith. 
It may be wondered how we know so fully the de- 
scription of the legal inquiries, the questions asked and 
the answers given by the Christians during the process 
of examination and martyrdom, as described in the Acts 
of the Martyrs. The fact is that from the very earliest 
period, provision was made for the emergency. St. 
Clement, the Roman Pontiff, appointed seven notaries, 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 95 



who were short-hand reporters, to take down all the 
particulars they could learn of the actions and words 
of the martyrs in the district separately confided to 
each of them. 

The legal trials of the martyrs, which in the provinces 
usually took place in the pro-consul's palace called the 
Pretorium, were carried on inside of a railing and be- 
hind a curtain. Of course only the pagan notaries 
could there be present and take note of the questions 
of the magistrates and the answers of the Christians. 
Sometimes, by bribery, copies of these official reports 
were obtained from the pagan notaries. The Christian 
notaries used to mingle in the crowd outside the Pre- 
torium to jot down privately everything that happened 
during the time of the process. These notes were 
afterwards copied in regular form, and were read in 
the churches and sent to Christians in distant coun- 
tries. Ruinart shows that it was customary in many 
churches, especially in Africa, Gaul and Spain, to read 
these Acts of the Martyrs in public on the anniversary 
of their death. 

Eusebius describes vividly the awful character of 
the punishments meted out by the emperor. Some 
were roasted on gridirons, others were devoured piece- 
meal by leopards, or gored by wild bulls set loose upon 
them in the arena. Throughout Africa, Mauritania, 
Egypt and Thebiades, the number of martyrs was sim- 
ply incalculable. It is stated, upon excellent authority, 
that during the very first month of this persecution, 
from fifteen thousand to seventeen thousand were put 
to death. 

Among the distinguished soldiers of Christ who 
sealed their faith with their life blood, we find mentioned 
Dorotheus and Gorgon, two of the emperor's most 
trusted chamberlains. Sebastian, a captain of the im- 
perial guards, was shot to death with arrows, and 



96 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORMT. 

Thymus, bishop of Nicomedia, was beheaded; St. 
Pancratius, martyred at Rome ; St. Januarius, at Bene- 
ventum ; Sts. Cosmos and Damian, at Selicia ; St. 
Agnes, a Roman maiden; St. Theodora, at Antioch, 
and St. Justina and Rufina, at Seville. 

So confident was the emperor of utterly blotting out 
the name of Christian, that he erected pillars upon 
which his apparent victory was described as the "vic- 
tor}^ of paganism," the "extinction of Christianity," the 
"extirpation of superstition." This cruel war waged 
even after the resignation of Diocletian, losing none of 
its fury under Galerius and Maximin, who succeeded 
him. And not until the year 312, when Constantine 
the Great, entering Rome under the gleaming banner 
of the cross, was the hand of the oppressor uplifted and 
the Church restored to peace. Thus the bloody strug- 
gle of three centuries was ended, and Christianity at 
length gained a complete triumph over paganism. 

We have now to consider the value set upon mar- 
tyrdom by the Christians themselves (that is what 
might be called its intrinsic value) and the value which 
it bears as a confirmative evidence of an historical 
truth or fact. And first, nothing can be surer than that 
they who suffered confiscation and imprisonment and 
banishment, but especially death, were honored with 
the highest veneration, and besought as protectors and 
intercessors, whose influence was all powerful with 
God. Evidence of this, we have yet in the Catacombs 
where it is plain as we shall see from inscriptions still 
legible, that it was considered the greatest privilege to 
be buried near a martyr's tomb. Moreover, too, from 
the earliest times, the Holy Sacrifice was offered up 
over the ashes of the martyrs. 

As to the merely human value of an attestation 
sealed by death, to confirm an historical fact, there can 
be no greater proof of sincerity and fidelity : and hence 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 97 

it is that no stronger argument of the truths and facts 
of Christianity exists than the testimonies of the 
martyrs themselves. For whether we consider the 
number, their personal qualities, or the fortitude they 
displayed, it is equally evident that what they asserted 
really happened. One does not die to maintain a 
doubtful proposition. Many of the early martyrs were 
eye witnesses of the works of Christ : others saw with 
their own eyes the miracles of the apostles and still 
others were convinced by the testimony of those in 
whom they must have had most perfect con- 
fidence. Then consider that in defence of this they 
were ready to forfeit everything they possessed, 
even life itself. It is vainly urged by mockers 
of religion that they were fanatics, but the 
whole story of the facts in the case, and the only one 
which history has handed down to us, gives the lie to 
this calumny. Their conduct was the very contrary 
of fanatical. They were quiet, peaceful, retiring men 
and womem, who desired only to escape publicity. 
What human motive could have urged them to give 
up their lives ? Was it vanity? Thousands of them 
were children, slaves, and men and women of the low- 
est rank, who died without leaving the record of their 
names ; and so common was martyrdom in those days, 
that death for the faith seemed an every day matter 
and received little notice. 

There is only one motive that the impartial study of 
the case can reveal. They were certain of what they 
professed, and for that certainty they died. That cer- 
tainty is Christ crucified and risen from the dead. 

The story, therefore, of the first three ages of the 
Church, written as it is in the blood of thousands of wit- 
nesses to the truth of Christianity, is the strongest pos- 
sible testimony to the divinity of the faith, which our 
ancestors have handed down to us. And surely, the 



98 THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 

fact that notwithstanding the opposition of every 
human power and dignity, the church continued to 
grow and increase in fervor, strength and numbers, 
is sufficient evidence of its divine origin. What human 
institution during three hundred years could defy the 
greatest civil power the world has ever known, the im- 
perial Caesars, and not only survive, but succeed to a 
greater and more universal power than the Caesars 
themselves had ever known, in the very city of the 
Caesars, Rome itself? What greater argument can be 
adduced to prove the divinity of the Church's mission 
and the constant protection of Christ, its Founder, than 
the story I have briefly told you of the sufferings of 
the followers of Christ in the first three centuries ? If 
the Church could ever fail, here was the time for its 
complete extinction. If kings, or emperors, or con- 
suls, or prefects, or magistrates had ever power to 
crush the Christian faith, here surely was the time it 
would have been blotted out. If edicts, laws and 
proclamations were ever to impede the progress of the 
Church's triumph, here was the time to place an im- 
movable barrier against its march. If sufferings, tor- 
tures, inhuman cruelties or death itself were of any 
avail against the Spirit of God, revealed in the doc- 
trines of the Church, surely after three hundred years 
of all that fiendish ingenuity could devise, were 
Christianity not divine, it would then have perishhd in 
oblivion. But on the contrary, we know that it came 
forth from the fiery ordeal glorious and triumphant, 
purified by the trial, strengthened by its combat with 
enemies. And the story of the infant Church may 
well serve as a solace to Catholics in times of trouble, 
and a warning to our enemies. God's word is truth, 
and His promises endure forever. 

"Behold;" said Christ, "I am with you always, un- 
til the consummation of the world." 



THE PERSECUTIONS, THE STORM. 99 

And so I draw to a conclusion, this conference. We 
have accompanied the early Christians through their 
period of grief to that of rejoicing, from the time of 
Nero, through the reign of persecution to the be- 
ginning of the days of peace. 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 



In bringing to a close this series of conferences on 
the history of the Christian Church during the first 
three centuries, it appears to me not inappropriate to 
glance, in parting, at a subject, which of recent years 
has attracted world-wide attention, and is constantly 
growing in interest among the students of our times, 
I mean Christian archaeology. 

For a long time the Church has battled against er- 
rors which combatted this or that doctrine of faith, 
this or that interpretation of dogma. The general 
fountains of knowledge were still to be recognized in 
common. It seemed rather a matter of agreeing upon 
deductions. It was the false logic, the poor reasoning 
of the Church's opponents that led them to their false 
conclusions, and so the Church turned all her forces 
into the field of philosophy and dogmatic theology, so 
as to send forth to combat her enemies, champions of 
sound logic, right argument, acute reasoning. But to- 
day the enemy has shifted its camp ; the attack comes 
from another side. It is no longer a question of reas- 
oning from common premises ; it is a question of the 
premises themselves. The question is not now, what 
is meant by such a text, but does the text itself really 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. IOI 

exist ? The very fountains of knowledge are denied, 
and so the warfare takes on a new aspect. 

History, that is, the proving facts as they existed, 
of documents as they were written, this is now the 
field of battle between us and infidelity. The science 
ol to-day is strictly materialistic, the reasoning ac- 
counted the only true method is from facts, not prin- 
ciples. Scientists believe only what they can see, 
touch and handle ; all else may be considered beauti- 
ful poetry, interesting legend or folk-lore, but is not 
considered science. 

To-day, therefore, the importance of true history 
which brings us face to face with the origin, founda- 
tion and beginnings of our religion, is more and more 
recognized by the Church. Does it not seem provi- 
dential that till this period of rationalistic science, the 
very strongest and aptest argument has been pre- 
served through many centuries in the very bowels of 
the earth ; and that when now doubt is cast upon the 
meaning of texts, when the origin of documents has 
been denied or cast into obscurity, the dead as it were 
have been brought to life, and from the catacombs 
have walked forth, living witnesses of the belief, the 
practices, the ritual of the church as it existed in the 
very first days of its history. Archaeology is, there- 
fore, to-day, the eye and the right hand of ecclesiastical 
history, for by the discovery of inscriptions, paintings, 
sculptures, documents, which by proof incontestable 
are demonstrated to be contemporaneous with the 
earliest Christian times, indeed some of them of indu- 
bitable apostolic origin, it brings under the eye and 
finger of the scientist the very material proofs which 
he alone will admit as convincing. 

To combat the ravages of modern criticism, to ar- 
rest the march of that Attila of history, archaeology 
has arisen, and bringing to the front the very proofs 



102 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

concerning which doubt had arisen, puts an end to its 
destructive progress. And so learned Christians have 
appeared all over the world, who, versed in this mod- 
ern defence of Christianity, have set their faces against 
the attacks of scepticism. In Italy, in France, in Eng- 
land, and in Germany, these indefatigable champions, 
with an activity really admirable, have searched to the 
very depths the ancient archives and libraries, de- 
ciphered worn and withered manuscripts, gone down 
into the earth among the tombs to rouse from the re- 
pose of centuries the ashes of the very dead, to make 
them stand in defence of Christian faith. 

Christian archaeology is the surest guide to the his- 
tory of the beginnings of Christianity. It furnishes a 
source of irrefragable proofs, witnesses in marble, in 
bronze, in wood, ivory and crystal, whose veracity is 
superior to all the subtleness of the human intellect. 
All the monuments which have come down to us from 
the hands of the first Christians, even those most in- 
significant in appearance, from the grand system of 
crypts of the Roman cemeteries and the basilicas ol 
Constantine, down to the simplest bit of stone or terra 
cotta, give testimony of some fact, and their composite 
evidence forms the story of primitive Christian soci- 
ety. 

An important text of a writer may be altered or 
poorly reproduced or effaced ; but an epigraph in 
marble, a picture still almost intact, revealed to us by 
the pick of the excavator cannot lie ; and therefore 
the testimony of such witnesses as these is of the 
highest value. 

Again, during these later years, we are constantly 
being told that in the primitive ages of the Church, 
the faith was pure and the ceremonies and rites after 
the mind of Christ ; but that after the third century all 
this was changed, innovations crept in and so the 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 103 

Church's identity was lost. If, therefore, by archaeol- 
ogy, it becomes evident to the eyes that the Church's 
doctrine upon the very points at issue were then what 
they are now, it is manifest that this science is the one 
of all the rest which can best settle the question as to 
the legitimate and genuine succession of the Catholic 
Church of the nineteenth century to the Church of the 
first and second centuries, called by our opponents 
"the centuries of gold." 

As the Rosetta stone was the key to languages cen- 
turies forgotten, so the inscriptions and documents of 
the catacombs are the key by which we read the con- 
nection between the present Church and the Church 
of the apostles. But the field of Christian archaeology 
is extensive in the extreme. It means the study of all 
the ancient manuscripts, documents, relics of all kinds 
that have come down to us from the earliest Christian 
times. The works of the holy fathers of the Church, 
the apologies of the earliest writers, the Acts of the 
Martyrs, the martyrologies, calendars, pontifical and 
liturgical, all are included in this science. 

It would be utterly impossible here, even to indicate 
the wonderful range over which it extends. We may 
only consider one of its important branches, namely, 
the study of the Roman catacombs. 

At the very mention of the word catacombs, we al- 
most seem to see the early Christians gathered in the 
tombs below the earth, surrounded by the bodies of 
the dead, seeking in the very bowels of the earth to 
escape the fury of unjust persecution. We seem 
to see the living witnesses of the faith by the uncertain 
light of the sepulchral lamps, lilting to heaven their 
pure hands to implore peace and mercy for the Church, 
strength for the faithful who groaned within the prfson 
walls, and fortitude lor those destined to greater tor- 
ments, and finally death. 



104 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

We seem to see the priests and bishops, and the Ro- 
man pontiffs, too, lifting to heaven the Host of peace 
and salvation, and offering to God the sacrifice ol the 
Immaculate Lamb, slain for our redemption. In a 
word, at the name of the catacombs, we represent to 
ourselves the dark habitations of the dead become the 
dwellings of the living ; the place which witnessed at 
once, the most terrible fears and the most joyous 
hopes. 

In this conference I shall continually make use of 
the science and erudition of the great archaeologist, 
John Baptist de Rossi, in endeavoring to set forth be* 
fore you to-day the truth as regards the origin and use 
of the Christian catacombs. 

It is by means of words that we express ideas, and 
therefore to the word catacomb must correspond the 
concept which it signifies. The name itself, catacomb, 
is derived from the Greek prefix "kata," meaning 
"near," and the Latin word "cumbere," "to lie." 
Entymologically, therefore, this word signifies a place 
near the sepulchres ; and this is the signification as- 
signed to the word by modern archaeologists. 

In consequence, it is plain, that properly considered, 
the word catacomb itself does not mean a sepulchre 
or cemetery, but a place near the cemetery. And that 
clever archaeeologist, de Rossi's successor, Mariane 
Armellini, Professor of Sacred Archaeology in the Col- 
lege of the Propaganda, tells us that the word cata- 
comb was a topographical term, used to signify a tract 
of country on the Via Appia, about two miles beyond 
the present walls of Rome. In the course of time 
this name came to signify the cemetery of St. Sebas- 
tian, and afterwards, in the middle ages, it was ex- 
tended in meaning and application to all subterranean 
cemeteries of the Christians. 

The earliest Christians, however, by the name cata- 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 105 

comb, never intended to indicate at all their subter- 
ranean cemeteries. These were already in existence 
long before this term came into use, which only long 
afterwards was turned to its present signification. In 
the course of centuries the two ideas became confused, 
so that by the name of catacomb was understood the 
Christian cemeteries under ground. Now, this word 
cemetery, while it recalls to our minds the places 
where those dear to us are buried, at the same time 
consoles us with the sweet hope of their eternal happi- 
ness and of the future resurrection. For cemetery, 
derived from the Greek word which signifies repose, 
reminds us that those who lie there, though bodily 
dead, still live the life of the soul, which will one day 
at the so\ind of the archangel's trumpet, return anew, 
to take up again these spoils of mortality. And so 
death is likened to a sleep from which the dead shall 
wake again at the last day. 

This was the belief and the faith and the hope which 
gave origin to the Christian sepulchres, which to-day 
are called the catacombs. Jews and Gentiles had 
their sepulchres, but St. Paul had proclaimed that 
there could be no communication between light and 
darkness, between Christ and Belial, and so from the 
beginning it was repugnant to Christian sentiment to 
deposit in the same place the bodies of the saints who 
were temples of the Holy Ghost, and who should one 
day rise again to be invested with immortal glory, 
and the ashes of those, who dying without faith, cher- 
ished no hope of immortality or future glory. Sepa- 
rated by the character of Baptism given in life, in death 
too, they wished still to be distinct ; and this distinc- 
tion was visible also by the inscriptions upon their 
tombs. Upon the pagan's was written "mortuus est," 
upon the Christian's, *'Secessit in pace." St. Ilarius re- 
minds us of a prohibition which then existed of bury- 



106 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

ing Christians in the same place with infidels, when he 
writes : "The Lord has admonished us not to mingle 
with the memory of the saints those who die without 
the faith." 

This same prohibition was sanctioned by the Coun- 
cil of Laodicea, when those of the faithful who interred 
the Christians in the cemeteries of heretics were ex- 
communicated, and this, it is evident from very early 
writers, was even at that time no new law. We read 
for instance in St. Cyprian, that the bishop Martial 
was deposed from his See because, among other ac- 
cusations brought against him, was this one, of having 
permitted his children to be buried in the cemetery of 
the pagans. In this matter, it appears the Church has 
ever been most particular, especially in the earliest ages 
of the Church, on account of the pagan superstition re- 
garding the dead. Impious rites were performed and 
sacrifices offered to the evil spirits in the pagan places 
of burial. In consequence, it was natural the church 
should endeavor to prevent the burial of her children 
in such places. 

It was, therefore, a reason of faith and communion 
which impelled the Christians to keep their own burial 
places separate from the sepulchres of the gentiles and 
the heretics of their times, in order that without scan- 
dal to the faith, they might kneel at the resting places 
of their loved ones, pour forth in peace their prayers 
to God, and mark their tombs by those sculptured or 
painted symbols, emblems or images, which expressed 
the certainty of their faith and hope. 

The word cemetery, at least in Rome, comprehended 
the whole place of burying, as well under as above the 
ground, including also the houses built thereupon, and 
the basilicas, oratories and dwellings found there. 
When, therefore, we read in the Liber Pontificalis, for 
example, in the life of Liberius. that "Constantius sent 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 107 

messengers to recall Liberius from the cemetery of 
Agnes where he lived," or again in the life of St. Boni- 
face, that he lived in the cemetery of St. Felicitas, 
we must not suppose that these popes lived under the 
earth in the catacombs, but in the basilicas, oratories 
and dwellings which were erected in that place or 
tract of ground under which were the sepulchres, now 
called catacombs. 

The form of the sepulchres was different in different 
places, according as they were above or under the 
earth. The subterranean burial places were great 
galleries or corridors, which in Rome went by 
the name of cuniculi, or were also called crypts, and 
the whole subterranean part of the cemetery was 
called arenarium. The part above the ground was 
called the field or the gardens. 

In the underground sepulchres, the bodies of the faith- 
ful were placed in niches dug out of the galleries, and 
these to-day are called by the archaeologists, loculi, 
which accordfng to their depth or capacity to contain 
two or three bodies were called bisomi or trisomi. 
These were closed up with bricks or by slabs of marble, 
according to the wealth and condition of the owner ; 
and these slabs were called tabulae if placed verti- 
cally over the tomb, or if horizontally, they were called 
mensae. 

If these sepulchres had the form of an arch enclosed 
by a tablet and were surmounted by an arched niche, 
they were called archisolia. At times also, bodies 
were buried beneath the pavement of the galleries just 
as we see them still in the churches of Europe ; and 
upon these tombs, covered with slabs of marble, some- 
times epitaphs were engraved ; sometimes they were 
left uninscribed. The rooms or places called cubicula, 
which are found at intervals in the catacombs were 
excavated in various forms and dimensions. Some 



108 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

are rectangular, some oblong, some polygon shaped. 
To give air to the rooms and passages, shafts were cut 
in the earth which were sometimes vertical, sometimes 
oblique ; and for the entrance of light to the under- 
ground passages, luminaria, that is lanterns, namely 
openings reaching to the outer air, were dug and the 
rooms and passages were designated with reference to 
their position regarding the luminaria. 

These subterranean galleries were frequently exca- 
vated to a remarkable depth, and were reached by 
means of stairs which connected with the various 
stories into which the catacombs were divided. These 
steps or stairs may be classified into two categories ; 
those prior to the Peace of Constantine, and those later 
than that time. The first kind were very narrow and 
steep, and penetrated into the various regions of the 
subterranean cemetery. But after the peace which 
the church enjoyed during the reign of Constantine, 
other stairs were cut out of the earth, easier of descent, 
and leading generally to the crypts of the more ven- 
erated of the martyrs ; sometimes, too, being con- 
nected with the basilicas and oratories built above the 
cemeteries. The name given to these steps is cata- 
baticum. 

It would not be a correct idea to imagine that all 
the cemeteries of the Christians were catacombs, that 
is, subterraneous. It is a fact demonstrated by recent 
discoveries that above most of the subterranean ceme- 
teries of Rome, were established and preserved other 
burial places. The most illustrious of these was the 
Vatican cemetery, where was buried the body of St. 
Peter. In 1883, was discovered another similar burial 
place over the Catacombs of St. Callistus, on the Ap- 
pian Way, and many others, traces of which were dis- 
covered by the Jesuit Father Marchi, de Rossi, and 
Armellini. 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. IO9 

The early Christians, as we of to-day, planted above 
the graves of their dead, shrubs and flowers, turning 
the graves into little gardens, as a sign of the gardens 
of Paradise, where now those blessed souls enjoyed 
eternal peace. The guardians of the cemeteries were 
the grave diggers, whose office was accordingly held 
in very high repute and honor. In some of the earli- 
est writings they are named alter the sub-deacons, and 
St. Jerome calls them clerics. De Rossi demonstrates 
that in the Christian speech the word bene facere sig- 
nified the burying of the dead ; and so the grave dig- 
gers came to be known as benefactors. 

As many of the subterranean cemeteries of Rome 
have been discovered to be connected with each other 
by passages in the tufa, or rocky earth, it was believed 
in the sixteenth century that the catacombs were not 
excavated by the Christians, but that they found them 
already dug and turned them to their own use, but 
Professor Armellini, in his work on the Roman Cata- 
combs, combats with solid argument this opinion, and 
demonstrates that granted that this fact were true of 
one cemetery, it certainly does not apply to the rest. 

And now comes the question, natural enough, how 
could the Christians, constantly persecuted and har- 
rassed through the first three centuries of the Church, 
excavate such immense cemeteries and bury there the 
blessed remains of the Christians and martyrs. De 
Rossi answers this question thus: Although the Ro- 
man laws allowed no tolerance or peace to the Chris- 
tian religion, nevertheless, by force of a common law 
due to the natural reverence lor the places of the 
dead, the cemeteries, no matter to what sect or reli- 
gion they belonged, were always considered inviolable, 
and the ground or earth in which the dead were 
buried was by that very fact considered sacred, and 
most severe penalties were sanctioned against those 



IIO THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

who dared to violate the burying places of the dead, 
punishing this crime even by banishment. Nor alone 
was that soil considered sacred where the body ol the 
dead was placed, or above which was raised the 
sepulchral monument, but all that tract of ground 
surrounding it, which the founder of the sepulchre 
considered annexed to it. Hence we find sepulchral 
areas 2400 feet long and 2000 wide. 

Since, therefore, these areas around the tomb en- 
joyed the privilege of inviolability, it is easily under- 
stood that the catacombs and Christian cemeteries 
could be excavated with security in the private prop- 
erty of a Christian family, and that the dead Christians 
were sure of a quiet resting place, protected by the 
laws of the same government in death which had al- 
lowed them no rest while living. This we learn from 
a law of Marcus Aurelius, who decreed that all bodies 
who had received "just burial/' that is, consigned to 
the earth, could not be disturbed in their repose. 
Therefore, it is not difficult to see how the Christians 
of the early ages dug this city of the dead even during 
the times of the fiercest persecution. 

When in the third century, the multitude of the 
faithful increased to great numbers, the private sepul- 
chres were no longer sufficient to contain the dead, 
and it was necessary to enlarge them. It was in pre- 
cisely this time, as de Rossi observes, that a great 
number of burial associations were formed, allowed 
by the law to possess places of sepulchre ; and the 
Christian church, though proscribed by law, could 
nevertheless legally form such an association. It was 
then that the pagans were enraged to see this privilege 
accorded to the Church, which like any other burial 
society, was allowed to possess its public cemeteries, 
and there in secret offer solemn prayers for the repose 
of the faithful departed. Again and again they at- 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. Ill 

tempted to deprive the Christians of this legal right, 
but the law always sustained them, and the Christian 
church, under the guise of a funeral association, en- 
joyed the privileges accorded to any other corporation 
of the pagans, and so, as Allard writes, the Church in 
the third century found itself in a double and contradic- 
tory situation. As a religion it was illegal and pun- 
ishable ; as an association it was licit and free ; in the 
same way that St. Paul asserted his rights as a Roman 
citizen and compelled them to be respected, though as 
a Christian he was put to death. 

The Christian sepulchres which belonged to a pri- 
vate family, or to an association, were composed of 
three principal parts : the monumentum, the area and 
the crypt. The monumentum was the visible part, 
and as it were, the sign or index of the burial place ; 
the area was the tract of ground which was considered 
a part of the cemetery ; the crypt was the subter- 
ranean room or chamber, in the walls of which the 
niches were cut which received the bodies ; and these 
niches were called Columbria, because they looked 
like dove cots. Frequently the whole sepulchre was 
called the monumentum from its principal and visible 
part. 

The question has been asked, why are the cata- 
combs always found outside the walls of the city. 
The answer is that by the Roman law, burial within 
the city limits was prohibited, and the Christians nat- 
urally obeyed this law. However, the distance of the 
cemetery from the city wall was never great, in order 
thatthey might have less difficulty in transporting thith- 
er the bodies of the martyrs and that by their proximity 
they might serve as convenient places of meeting. 
The cemeteries which we find more than two or three 
miles beyond the city did not belong, properly speak- 
ing, to the Roman Christians, but to the little settle- 



112 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

merits of the faithful scattered through the Campania. 
The ancient documents and especially the itineraries 
give us the precise number of the Roman cemeteries, 
and the greater number of them correspond to the 
number of the ancient titles of the parishes of the city, 
which in the third century numbered 25 or 26. Of 
these we may here only notice four of the greater 
catacombs, those of Callistus, Priscilla, the Ostrian 
and the Vatican. 

One of the first great cemeteries legally established 
by the Roman Church is that which is commonly 
called the cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way 
near the Basilica of St. Sebastian. In the Philosoph- 
oumna, we read that Pope Zepharinus toward the year 
197, gave to Callistus, one of his deacons, the care and 
administration of this cemetery, hence called the cem- 
etery of Callistus. This catacomb, as modern archae. 
ologists prove, is the combination of many smaller 
cemeteries, namely of the crypt of Lucina, a matron 
of apostolic times, of the Calcilii, of St. Soter, and 
finally of the cemetery of the apologists. 

In the crypt of the Cecilia family was buried the 
glorious Virgin, St. Cecilia of that family. The popes 
of the third century, from Zephirinus to Miltiades 
were buried there together with other bishops and per- 
sonages and martyrs, and among these the acolyte St. 
Tarcisius. Pope St. Damasus has left us a beautiful 
eulogy on this glorious martyr, which illustrates the 
story of the martyrs, of the Holy Eucharist there con- 
secrated, of the rite of carrying it to the absent, of the 
violence of the pagans against the faithful, and oi the 
discipline of the secret. 

This cemetery of Callistus can with justice be called 
a museum of sacred archaeology and the summary of 
the ecclesiastical history of the first centuries of the 
Church and of the various rites and observances which 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. II3 

were practiced by the early Christians. There are 
still found images of the saints, illustrating the truth of 
the veneration of holy persons by the Church ; the 
symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist ; frescoes illus- 
trating the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, the pri- 
macy of St. Peter, the resurrection of Lazarus, the 
story of Jonah ; inscriptions of St Damasus which il- 
lustrate the questions of the fallen ; the sepulchres of 
many popes, among others, Anterus, Fabianus, Luctus, 
Eutichianus, and many other monuments which incon- 
testably prove, as if by living witnesses, the story of 
Christ, the Gospel and the truth which the Church be- 
lieves today, as it believed when those images, monu- 
ments and inscriptions were first placed on the walls 
of the catacombs. 

The cemetery of Priscilla is situated on the Via Sal- 
aria, and is thus named from the Priscilla the mother 
ot Pudans, contemporary of the apostles, who was there 
buried. Here also were the tombs ot Prudentiana and 
Praxides ; and of Prisca and Aquila, named by St. Paul 
and St. Luke in the Acts, and here also was laid the 
body of St. Justin the Apologist, with a multitude of 
unknown martyrs who perished in the days of Dioc- 
letian. Here afterwards, too, in the days of peace, 
were buried Sjdvester, Liberius, Sirisius and Vigilius, 
popes. 

This cemetery of Priscilla is connected with the 
cemetery Novella, whose historical origin was first re- 
vealed bv the distinguished professor of the Univer- 
sity of Paris, Duchesne, in his studies on the Liber 
Pontificalis. This Necropolis is excavated in two 
stories, in both of which we trace the vestiges of a re- 
mote antiquity. Nearly all the sepulchres of this cem- 
etery are dissimiliar to those of the other catacombs. 
Inscriptions are painted ink. The language used is 
generally Greek, the text most simple, being for the 



114 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

most part merely the name of the defunct, with the 
apostolic salutation Pax tecum, or simply Pax. For 
example, the sepulchre of the virgin and martyr, St. 
Philomena, discovered in 1802, was decorated with the 
following inscription : Pax tecum Philomena. 

It is also a specialty of this cemetery that herein is 
most frequently found the name Petrus, and this fre- 
quent repetition as de Rossi observes, demonstrates 
the relations which the apostle had with the family of 
Pudens, buried in this cemetery. 

Among the beautiful pictures which we here ad- 
mire is that of the Blessed Virgin, with the infant 
Jesus at her breast, the star over her head, and a 
prophet with a scroll in hand opposite to her. In 
another place is represented the Adoration of the Magi, 
a scene of the Passion of Christ ; and in another still is 
depicted St. Peter, who receives the new law from the 
Hands of Christ, represented as sitting upon the world 
as the king of the universe. 

Among the inscriptions most important is one at- 
tributed to Pope Liberius, well known up to the end of 
the seventh century, then lost and re-discovered by 
de Rossi in the imperial library of St. Petersburg, and 
represented also by Duchesne in his Liber Pontihcalis. 
This splendid collection of monuments and inscriptions 
make this cemetery of Priscilla one of the most im- 
portant of all the catacombs. 

The Ostrian cemetery, however, is of no less value, 
especially on account of the knowledge it brings us of 
the Prince of apostles. The origin of this cemetery on 
Yia Nomentana, dates to the epoch of the first visit of 
the apostle to Rome. Up to within a few years it was 
believed to be a branch of the cemetery of St. Agnes ; 
this, however, is proved to be false. It is a distinct 
and independent cemetery, and has no connection 
with that of St. Agnes. The ancient ecclesiastical 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 1 1 5 

documents have preserved to us the various names by 
which this cemetery was called ; among others are 
those of "greater," "ad nymphas," "ad capream," and 
finally "Ostrianum ;" and this last name we know was 
a corruption of the name of Ostorius, one of the most 
ancient Roman families ol the first centuries of the em- 
pire. 

It was called ad nymphas because it was situated in 
a marshy place. De Rossi thinks it was called ad 
capream on account of its proximity to the capream 
swamps, famous for the death of Romulus ; and there- 
fore it was merely a topographical appellation. The 
title "greater," "majus," was given to it doubtless be- 
cause in this cemetery St. Peter baptized the new con- 
verts to the faith, and here was preserved his episcopal 
throne. 

That St. Peter administered here the Sacrament of 
Baptism, we gather from the ancient monuments of the 
Roman cemeteries, where the Ostrian catacombs are 
called the cemetery of St. Peter's font ; and in the 
Act of the Martyrs, Maurus and Papiris, under 
Diocletian, we read that their bodies were buried "on 
the Via Nomentanum, in the place called ad nymphas, 
where Peter baptized." We find the same testimony 
in the Acts of Liberius, in which speaking of this same 
cemetery, he says : "the place where the apostle Peter 
administered baptism." Though these Acts are apoc- 
ryphal, nevertheless it cannot be supposed that their 
compiler had invented a fact which was already well 
known in the Roman tradition ; besides, recent dis- 
coveries amply prove this tradition to be true. 

In the days of St. Gregory the Great, here was ven- 
erated a chair of St. Peter, preserved in this necropo- 
lis with great honor, and before which lamps were 
kept burning constantly, as was the custom of that 
time with all the more noteworthy relics ; and indeed 



Il6 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 



some drops of the oil used in the lamps were collected 
in a phial from the tomb of Theodolinda. This phial 
is now preserved in the treasury of Monza, and upon 
the papyrus attached to it are written these words : 
"Sedes ubi prius seditsanctus Petrus,"and in the Index 
of oils is registered this one : "Oleum deesede ubi 
prius sedit sanctus Petrus." This would seem to in- 
dicate that there were two different chairs of the 
apostle, and indeed two different feasts of this chair 
were celebrated, that of the Ostrian chair was cele- 
brated the eighteenth of January, that of the Vatican 
chair the twenty-second of February. 

The most notable relics of this cemetery are the 
epitaphs which are easily proved to be contemporan- 
eous to the time ot the apostles. A crypt, discovered 
by Bosio and rediscovered again in 1876 by Professor 
Armelhni, has the form of a little church. Here in an 
inscription much worn by time, and of which there re- 
main but a few words, we read the names of St Em- 
erantiana and St. Agnes; and still is seen the column 
on which was placed the little basin filled with oil — 
the lamp which burned before the chair of St. Peter, 
preserved formerly in this little church. 

It is impossible to describe minutely all the pictures 
of this cemetery. The most celebrated ofthese is a rep- 
resentation of the Blessed Virgin with the head veiled, 
the arms extended in prayer, and her little Son at her 
bosom ; in another place is depicted the scene of the 
Magi led by the star. Again, still plainly visible from 
the walls of this cemetery is the picture of the resur- 
rection of Lazarus, the symbols of the Eucharist, the 
icthus, and the monogram of Christ. 

Here, too, is represented the Prince of the apostles, 
St Peter, as a second Moses drawing water from the 
arid rock, by the touch of his rod or staff. 

Next in importance comes the cemetery of the Vati- 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. WJ 

can. This is located in the valley which extended be- 
tween the Tiber and the Janiculum hill. This region 
was called the Vatican, either because the pagan 
prophets there gave forth the oracles and their re- 
sponses, or from the Etruscan divinity named Vati- 
canus, who was said to preside over the first wailings 
of all inlants. St. Augustine accepts this second etymol- 
ogy of the word as we learn from his City of God, 
book IV. chap. VIII. 

In this place were the gardens of Caiius Cassar, and 
it was here that Nero put to death the innocent Chris- 
tians accused by him of setting fire to the city of Rome. 
1 1 is not, therefore, strange that the Christians established 
here a vast necropolis, and archaeological discoveries 
have evidently proved that the apostle St. Peter was 
buried in this place. 

The Vatican cemetery was not constructed of sub- 
terranean passages and catacombs ; they were only a 
series of burial fields above ground, marked in some 
way by slabs or monuments. To these memorials it is 
evident that Caiius, a priest of the Roman Church, al- 
ludes when he writes Procul the Montanist : "I can 
point out to you the plainly visible trophies of the 
apostles, for if you wander through the Vatican region 
or along the Ostrian way, you will find there the 
memorials of those, who by preaching and authority 
established the Roman church." 

As we learn from the Liber Pontificalis, it was Pope 
Anacletus who constructed the monument or tomb of 
St. Peter. This is called in that book, memoria apos- 
toli, which in the epigraphic language signifies a bur- 
ial chamber. 

Near the tomb of St. Peter, was established the bur- 
ial place of the popes ; and Severanus narrates that 
when, under Urban VIII, the Confessional of St. 
Peter was reconstructed, several bodies were discov- 



Il8 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

ered in separate sarcophogi vested in pontifical garb ; 
and though no names marked their tombs, it was be- 
lieved to be most probable that they were the bodies 
of the ten holy pontiffs who immediately succeeded 
St. Peter in the See of Rome ; for in that same place 
was found a tablet marked with the inscription St. 
Linus. These bodies were allowed to remain undis- 
turbed in that same place. 

Torrigius was an eyewitness of this discovery. In 
the ancient martyrologies we read that St. Linus was 
buried "juxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticano" "near 
the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican cemetery." 

This burial-place would have furnished us with 
most valuable testimony of apostolic times, but it was 
destroyed to make room for the basilica of Constan- 
tine, and so we lost forever this collection of archae- 
ological treasures. 

These four catacombs just mentioned and briefly 
described, are among the principal of the Roman cat- 
acombs, of which, in round numbers, there are about 
fifty. It is plain that we cannot linger further upon a 
more detaiied account of individual cemeteries, but 
rather we must draw some conclusions from their gen- 
eral study. 

They served in times of persecution a splaces of meet- 
ing, of prayer and of worship. Here the Christians 
came to pray over the graves of their dead, especially on 
the anniversaries of their death. Here the martyrs 
were honored by special rites, and over their tombs, the 
Holy Sacrifice was offered up. Doubtless in times of 
persecution they served to some as a momentary refuge 
but it is utterly groundless to suppose that the Chris- 
tians lived in the catacombs ; and if we read at times 
that such a pontiff was called forth to death from his 
hiding in the catacombs, we must generally understand 
it in the sense of the writer, namely, that he was dis- 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. II9 

covered in the houses or oratories built upon the 
ground above the cemetery, and not in the under- 
ground burial place itself ; though we do know that 
Pope Sixtus II, surprised by the pagans during the 
holy functions, was decapitated upon his own episco- 
pal chair, which was bathed with his holy blood ; and 
at another time, a great number of Christians gathered 
in the cemeteries of the Salarian Way, were suddenly 
discovered and put to death. But this, it must be re- 
membered, was while they were gathered for divine 
worship, not while living in the catacombs. 

The graves of the martyrs are recognized by the 
presence inside the sepulchre of glass vases, and fre- 
quently added to the name upon the slab marking the 
tomb, is inscribed the palm, the sign of martyrdom, or 
even the word martyr. 

The glasses which we find affixed to the external 
walls of the tomb are not of the same significance, but 
were used to contain balsams and fragrant liquids with 
which the body during sepulture was sprinkled. The 
first kind of vase we find during persecutions ; the last 
in the times of peace ; thus at once is established a sign 
between the martyr who lived in troublous times, and 
the Christian who was buried here in times of quiet 
to the Church. 

The pictures which we find in the catacombs can be 
divided into three distinct periods of time and art. 
The first period begins with that of excavation, and 
extends along through the end of the first till the end 
of the fourth century. The catacombs must be con- 
sidered not only as the cradle of faith, but of Christian 
art. The second period extends from the epoch of 
peace under Constantine, when these sepulchres were 
changed into venerated sanctuaries, and when the 
enigma and mystery visible in the art of the first period 
flowered into a freer and franker representation of the 



120 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

subject. The third period may be called the period of 
decadence ; this was the Byzantine epoch, during 
which, in the ninth century, the cemeteries were com- 
pletely abandoned. Hence by the knowledge of the 
manner and style characteristic of these three periods, 
it can be known with certainty at what time the fresco 
was painted. 

The most ancient pictures of the catacombs reflect 
all the indications of classicism ; in the elegance of 
style, the simplicity of conception, and beauty of dec- 
oration, reminding us of the frescoes of Pompeii and 
of the baths of Titus. 

The subjects are always sacred and religious, but 
the style of treatment is much the same, and the dec- 
oration even similar to the pictures of pagan painters 
of the same epoch. Among the pictures of the cata- 
combs we discover a set system of symbols : the anchor, 
symbol of hope, is constantly met with, painted upon 
the walls and cut upon the tablets. The fish, the ac- 
cepted symbol of Christ, is one of the oldest symbols 
of the tombs : the dove, the symbol of the Christian 
soul, is another of these. The fish, coupled with the 
representation of bread, veils the mystery of the 
Eucharist; while a fountain signifies the sacrament of 
baptism. A bird with the olive branch in its beak sig- 
nifies the passage to Paradise of the Christian soul ; 
the lamb signifies one of the flock of Christ, and the 
horse alludes to our terrestrial wanderings ; the ship 
expresses the voyage of life, and the lighthouse, shed- 
ing its light from afar, represents divine grace. 

The most common allegory taught by the represen- 
tations of the catacombs is that of the wandering sheep 
and the Good Shepherd. Among the most interest- 
ing frescoes of the catacombs are those which repre- 
sent bible scenes, illustrative of an interpretation char- 
acteristic of the new church, Thus, Noah's ark is 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 121 

represented as the Church, Moses is represented as 
striking the rock, but underneath the figure is written 
Petrus. In some places we see representations of 
liturgical scenes, such as the administration of Baptism 
and the consecration of the Eucharist, as well as a 
scene of holy ordination. The rarity of these is ac- 
counted for by the existence of the discipline, of the 
secret and the reticence of the Christians with regard 
to the sacred mysteries. 

Nothing can be more certain than that the images 
of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints were re- 
vered by the earliest Christians. We see constantly 
the figure of our Lord seated in the midst of His apos- 
tles, receiving from them their homage and adoration, 

In all these pictures, St. Peter is placed on the right 
and next to Christ. Frequent, indeed, is the repre- 
sentation of the Blessed Virgin met with in the tombs 
and chapels of the catacombs, and from the style and 
representation is most manifest the honor in which 
she was held and the dignity accorded to her by 
the primitive Church. She is depicted there as seated 
upon a throne holding the Infant Jesus to her breast; 
or erect upon her feet, her arms extended in the act of 
prayer and intercession. Again she is seated before 
the magi, who come to offer gifts to her divine Son. 
These all, by their style and composition, are easily trac- 
ed to the first three centuries. Later, we find other rep- 
resentations in the Byzantine style. The covering, 
pose, and drapery are different, but the symbolism rep- 
resenting her position in the new faith is always the 
same. 

From these pictures, too, of priests and pontiffs we 
gather the style of \estment used in the celebration of 
the sacred mysteries. From the inscriptions, too, 
which still remain legible and clear, we learn various 
indications of the character of the early faith. For 



122 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 



example, take this one from the tomb of Basilla: 
"Domina Basilla commendamus tibi crescentinum et 
Micinam filiam nostram." Is it not plain from this 
that the doctrine of invocation of saints was practised 
in the primitive Church ? And here is another from 
another tomb: "Spiritum tiium Deus refrigeret." 
What is this but prayers for the dead ? 

Upon the tomb of some is the word designating 
their office and from these we gather that the orders 
existing in the early church were precisely the same 
as those of the present day." 

From one simple inscription is gathered the doc- 
trine of the Divinity of Christ : "In Deo Domino 
Christo," "In Christ the Lord God." Most frequent is 
allusion made to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity and the 
Unity of God ; and the doctrine of the resurrection is 
also taught by the epitaphs of the catacombs. Then, 
too, we learn the worldly condition of the Christians 
of that time. It is plain from proofs which these cem- 
eteries furnish, that not only slaves, servants, domes- 
tics and people of low condition were among the faith- 
ful professors of Christianity, but men and women of 
the highest dignity and social position, even of sena- 
torial rank and blood relationship to the emperors. 

Therefore, to draw to a close this conference upon 
the catacombs, we may remark that in confirmation of 
what history already knows of the Church's condition 
and character in the earliest times, these burial places 
of the dead have become the strongest possible wit- 
nesses. As day by day their study progresses, bring- 
ing to light more and more the richness and fullness of 
the records so providentially conserved to us in these 
hidden treasuries, brighter and more potent must ever 
shine the true story of the Church's origin, condition 
and present and constant apostolicity ; so that any one 
who enters* these tombs with an unbiased mind, open 



THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 1 23 

to conviction by scientific proof after he has wandered 
amid the burial places of those, who centuries ago, shed 
their blood for the faith; after he has stood in the cor- 
ridors where our forefathers walked in fear, yet con- 
fidence ; after standing within these sacred under- 
ground chapels, at whose altars priests and pontiffs 
offered up the Holy Sacrifice ; after reading inscrip- 
tion, which tell the truths they believed, and gazing 
upon the pictures which illustrate the doctrines and 
practices of their faith, he must finally be convinced, 
that aside from the conditions which arise from the di- 
versity of circumstances, in all else, the Catholic church 
of 1895 is identical in belief, in practice, in ritual, in 
government, with the Church of the first, second and 
third centuries. Brief as this conference is, attempt- 
ing merely to indicate in simplest outline the story of 
the origin and use of the Christian catacombs, and the 
value of the testimony they afford, in confirmation of 
historical documents, in tracing the doctrines and 
practices of the Church, and the customs and life of 
the early Christians, it may suffice to open up a sub- 
ject which, to the student will surely prove a field of 
wonderful attractiveness and interest. If I may hope 
to have aroused an increased desire to know more of 
this comparatively recent science of Christian archae- 
ology, my feeble efforts will have reaped ample fruit. 
In the works of John Baptist de Rossi, Prof. Armel- 
lini, and Messrs. Brownlow and Northcote, will be 
found a very mine of valuable information regarding 
the most important and most recent discoveries in this 
branch of knowledge, which daily grows to vaster 
proportions and is constantly attracting more respect- 
ful and universal consideration. 

And so I beg to finish this series of conferences 
which has led us from the cradle at Bethlehem through 
the streets of Jerusalem, the paths and by-ways of 



124 THE CATACOMBS, THE SHELTER. 

Judea, and along the banks of the sea of Galilee, into 
the garden of Gethsamane. up to the summit of Cal- 
vary, where for a while we rested under the shadow 
of the Cross. Thence, with the messengers of the new 
Gospel, we hastened along the huge thoroughfares 
that led to foreign lands and strange nations, arriving 
at last with the Prince of the apostles in the very city 
of the imperial Caesars. One by one, we have wit- 
nessed the apostles giving testimony of the faith by 
their blood ; we have seen the proud rulers of the 
earth lifting aloft their mighty voice and drawing the 
cruel sword against the converts to the Church, until 
all the world was filled with the cry of the martyrs and 
the protests of apologists. Through three long cen- 
turies we have followed the spread of the Gospel, 
drawing to its sweet yoke in the face of unspeakable 
terrors, men of every class and nation, until the very 
household of the Caesars was filled with the confessors 
of Christ; who, not permitted to offer in the light of 
day the homage of their hearts and souls to Christ, 
their God, undaunted in times of bitterest persecution, 
gathered amid the tombs in the very bowels of the earth 
to hear, the voice of His ministers speaking in His 
Name, to offer up the Sacrifice of the Mass, and re- 
ceive from the hand of the Christian priest and bishop 
the Bread of Life, their strength and consolation in 
all afflictions. At last a happier day arrives when a 
Christian emperor sits upon the imperial throne ; when 
from its hiding places the Church is summoned forth 
to triumph and honor. This is the sunshine which 
finally comes to brighten the period of gloom through 
which we have just passed. And so with the first 
streaks of dawn, tinging the horizon with its rays of 
gold, and before our eyes the cross of Constantine, 
glittering in the clear sky above us, we say good bye 
to the story of this first sad period of the Church's life, 
to greet the coming of a better day. 












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